GDL Eberron

Aberrants in Eberron

Larina’s Journal

Nymm 16

Freya says today is Nymm 16, but I cannot be certain of it. She seems to be the only one whokeeps track of time in this strange assortment of adventurers. Who Freya is? You’re right, I should start at the beginning, like one is supposed to do. Tycobi reminds me that it was one of the first things I taught him. Yes, Tycobi is once again with me. But like I said, let’s go back to the beginning…

It must have been about a month ago when this mess began. I was traveling Sarlona, deep in thought and without paying much attention to where I was going. There were rocks, trees, and a path – nothing out of the ordinary. I was soon lost in thought in the face of the solitude of the landscape. I was remembering the wretched day that had taken my family from me. I was remembering the Valenar Elves and Terlor, my dear Terlor. I was praying for Carzael and Aessa. And Tycobi…

Out of nowhere, a group of ant-like creatures appeared. Freya says they are called Formians. They surrounded me before I even noticed they were there, stinging me with some kind of poison. And after that… Nothing.

Of the month that passed I remember only faint glimpses. I was locked in a cage for most of it, receiving nourishment (Yes, nourishment. No humanoid in their right mind would call what they gave me food!) from one Formian with a strange-looking blackish spot on its back. I was unable to control my actions, not even taking in the nourishment out of my own account. My mind was fogged up with the voices of the Formians. Every once in a while I believe they took me on missions of some kind. I praise the Traveler that I do not recall any details from those missions!

One day, I was laying in my cage, when my hair obstructed my view. Even though there was nothing to look at but the other sad creatures caged in the cavern with me, I brushed it out of my eyes when suddenly I realized that I had moved my hand! I had moved out of my own free will! It took me a few minutes to realize that my mind was no longer fogged up. I moved carefully and slowly so I wouldn’t alert the guardian. Now that my mind was free, I began thinking about how to free my body. It would not be an easy task.

It must have been less than a day later when I heard noise from one of the adjacent rooms and suddenly a party of adventurers burst into the great hall. They stormed at the guardian, together striking him down easily. While I was watching the battle with astonishment, a furry face appeared next to mine. A Catfolk! She inquired my allegiance and, satisfied with my answer, picked the lock of my cage. She quickly returned to her party who had defeated my guardian and were observing the rest of the creatures in the hall, most of which still appeared to be mind-controlled by the Formians. I quickly jumped down from my prison, landing much less smoothly than expected. I had forgotten that my body had been confined to too small a space for too long. I would have to stretch as soon as I felt safe.

While the adventurers were busy with a Half-Elf they had freed, I was searching for my belongings. The Catfolk assisted me, introducing herself as Nirra Silvertail. We found my armor and beloved Scimitars, but my bag of holding was nowhere to be found. As I put on my equipment, the party turned their attention to me. Their leader, a cleric named Freya Stormshard, eyed me with suspicion but did not see a threat in me. She seemed much more apt to finish what they had come for. I inquired into their mission and as Nirra was about to answer, Freya shut her up. All she would tell me is that they were out to find and probably kill the Formian Queen. As Freya spoke of the queen, a burning rage inflamed my mind. It was this creature that I blamed for my imprisonment and I offered to join them, making no effort to hide my thirst for revenge. None of them seemed to mind another hand in combat and so I followed.

We fought or way past a handful of invisible Formians. What a wonderful feeling to be fighting again! I quickly discovered that despite the initial shock, my body had not forgotten the decades of training and my dance was as deadly elegant as it had been. But I took a poisonous hit from one of the creatures and felt weakened. Yet it was nothing that my rage could not make up for! We also weren’t stopped by Frost Worm that crawled at us from a stairwell, even though it managed to swallow both Aarson, the other Half-Elf, and Shen, the Dragon-like creature. On our way to the throne room we managed to avoid or disable a number of traps until Freya transported us directly into the chamber.

Oh, if you could only have seen how we raged! I went invisible and we took out most of the Formians surrounding the queen. When I finally reached her I had become visible again through her magic, but I summoned all my concentration to perform the 1000 Cuts I had learned from Gorbar. And she bled well, the treacherous creature! Yet it pains me to say that I did not succeed in ending her existence because she stunned me, along with Nirra. I was right there in front of her, having to hear the party negotiate with the beast. I wanted so desperately to sever all her many limbs, slowly and painfully. But had it not been for Freya who decided to get us out of there, my blind rage would have cost me my life. I owe her and I intend to pay the debt.

But this strange day was far from over yet. As we exited the cave I felt a slight tingle, as if I had stepped through a barrier of energy. But before I could even ask the others if they had felt it too, I heard a loud battle cry. A Clawfoot was charging at Freya and its rider smited her. Freya fell back into Shen’s arms while Aarson immediately attacked the rider, a Halfling, dressed in the typical Talenta armor. I had already recognized him, of course. I could have found this face in a crowd of a thousand. My own child, Tycobi! Reacting more than thinking, I threw myself at him, knocking him off his mount, shielding him from Aarson. I am not sure what exactly happened next, except that I was laughing and crying at the same time that I tried to show the others that he was no threat to them at all. They were reluctant to believe it, naturally. After all, he did attack their Cleric! But they finally gave in and allowed Tycobi to stay. Words cannot describe what I feel, finding something I believed lost forever. I sat up with him for hours by the fire, as the others were taking a well-deserved rest. A Paladin! My little one became an actual Paladin… I still cannot believe it. But now he is with me once again and I am happy. In the morning we will follow the guide to Shambala in Adar. Her name is Mollard’fai, and the discomfort Freya causes her and the dislike she has for her are almost visible. Freya is powerful and I shall make sure to be on her good side as long as I stay with this curious band of adventurers. I feel an interesting adventure coming on, much different from the things I’ve experienced when adventuring on my own. I am actually quite excited, and now that Tycobi is with me once again I have no other place to be. I shall see what happens.

Nymm 20

The way to Shambala is long and littered with the usual obstacles. We have fought two human men with magic powers, two elementals, and a few of the usual suspects. I don’t like the path we are taking, it is too narrow. When the threat is dead ahead, I do not have enough room to dance. A frontal attack is not my strong suit, but I make do. Thank the Traveler for Freya; her healing powers are quite a gift. Actually, Tycobi has learned to heal as well. I am amazed every single day by the things he has learned.

But I am not sure what to make of my new traveling companions, they are strange… Nirra is a Catfolk indeed. She is curious, sneaky and playful. Tycobi and she get along quite well. I can only hope they help each other stay out of trouble. Shen does not hesitate to fight when we face danger. I quite admire that about him, he is a true soul and an excellent fighter. I might still learn a thing or two from him. Aarson, however, I cannot make sense of. He is a caster, and I don’t like that at all. He is overall strange and unpredictable, yet Freya seems close to him. I shall have to wait and learn more about him, but I fear we will clash. He may be as stubborn as I am. And Freya. Well, Freya is indeed powerful. She has strong magic and a forceful character. You cannot help but respect her. She continues to heal and save me. How can I ever repay my debt if I just keep piling on more?

For now I will study them more closely. We will be traveling for at least two more weeks they say, but we may meet someone named Viren Icarus d’LyrandarViren on the way. Freya says he is looking for us. An old companion of theirs it seems.

Lharvion 6

We are nearing Shambala. Today Viren’s airship, the Crimson Meridian, caught up to us. Just in time! We were fighting something I have never seen before, a living spell! It wounded me severely and absorbed my energy. That thing even took my pinky!! Shen was a little too intent on fighting it and getting my finger back. Needless to say, he was wounded as well. He lost some small bits of flesh and… there is no nice way of saying this…. He lost one of his butt cheeks. It looks quite ridiculous and Aarson does not cease to make fun of him for it. Freya regenerated my pinky (which Shen did manage to get back from the creature), but refused to heal her brother. Yes, they are siblings. One of these days I shall ask Freya for the story of how Shen turned into a dragon. I am sure it is a good one!

For now, we are on Viren’s ship and on the way to Shambala to find a monastery of some kind. Freya has taken care of a crew member that appeared to be sick, or cursed. I am not sure which one.

Lharvion 8

Shambala is a strange sight! It is underneath some kind of crystal and unlike anything I have seen before. And here I was thinking I had seen most of Eberron. Clearly, I was mistaken. I have been exploring the town on my own. There are plenty of people, but I have found the occasional quiet spot, ideal for meditation. In one of the crystal alcoves I actually found a rock toad that I decided to catch for Tycobi. He’ll like playing with it I think.

I found my party when I heard the sound of Tycobi’s Hurdy Gurdy. After all these years, he still has that godforsaken instrument. But it does remind me of the good old times. We will be staying at the Whispering Respite, an inn run by an old white-haired Kalashtar. Tonight, we ate at the Black Anchor, a pub right across the street, quite a nice place. The people here don’t seem to mind talking to strangers. Eyre, our waiter, was talkative and helpful. Whatever their mission, it should not be too complicated.

When rejoining us today, Aarson brought a present for Shen. It is a shocker lizard he named Miranda. The dynamics of this group are still mysterious to me, but Tycobi and Nirra both seem to like playing with the lizard. Also, over dinner we decided to help Viren buy his airship and be independent from House Lyrandar. I was reluctant at first, but I plan on sticking around this party for a while. They are too interesting to leave just yet.

Lharvion 22

What an exciting few weeks! Shambala is quite fascinating and offered much more adventure than I anticipated. But I shall tell the events in the order they happened.

Initially, Nirra spent a few days volunteering all over town, trying to get information about the Path of Light, the religion they follow here. I mostly spent this time meditating, exploring the city on my own, and, of course, dancing. It has been quite a while since I danced in a tavern. I am pleased to know that I have not lost my edge and patrons are still very please with my skills. We have all taken the opportunity to shop for much needed items. Me especially, since most of my possessions were lost in the Formian hellhole. Viren was kind enough to improve my cloak of resistance for a much lower cost than any of the local merchants. I understand know why he is useful for the party beyond mere travel.

Around town, Nirra heard of a creature like Shen in appearance, a Half Copper Dragon, Half Elf named Ulahra, as we learned later. Before that information was revealed to us, Aarson tried hard to bribe the inn keeper to tell us of her whereabouts, but he would not tell us anything. Fortunately, we ran into her. We spoke a short while, and Aarson was intent on setting her up with Shen. I could see it in his smile that he had a plan, and he did manage to get us all out of there so they would have some time alone. Shen, unfortunately, does not seem to have a way with women. But despite this failure, we learned that Ulahra’s father had been the dragon, and that she had business with the elders of the monastery. What business I could only speculate because she did not look like a messenger or petitioner. On the contrary, she seemed strong, well-armed, like someone who knew ways to get what she wanted.

We, however, also went to see Yahli, the Elder, but were refused and sent to come back the next morning. Which we did. As a matter of fact, Freya had insisted we get there before sunrise, much to the dismay of some of the group. When we were finally admitted to the Chamber, Nirra presented him with what she later told me was a grey Ioun Stone, drained of its power. She told him it was “the potential of everything and the lack thereof.” Wise words indeed, as Yahli concurred. In turn he gave her a crystal as their worshippers wear. Freya and the others did the rest of the talking, while I stood in the back, still uncertain of why we were there in the first place. They inquired about the Inspired, presumable representing a group in Sharn that wish to stop them. Yahli told us a bit about their origins and then led us into the crystal to a room filled with strange artwork. He left us there and we immediately began reading about the artifacts and thereby learning about the Inspired’s history. Shen and I stood guard while Viren cast a spell so that he, Nirra, Aarson and Freya could examine a particularly interesting piece, made up of little puzzle cubes. I had given Tycobi something to keep him occupied so he would not get in their way.

All of a sudden, we heard angry shouts. I recognized Ulahra’s voice before I saw her, pursuing a blonde humanoid female who, judging by Ulahra’s words, had taken something that didn’t belong to her. Instinctively, we began following them, each for our own reasons. The party seemed to know the blonde women and dislike her. I was merely curious, and Tycobi decided to follow me. I wild chase ensued, through the tunnels of the monastery. Once we saw them split up, I decided to go after Ulahra. With me were Tycobi, Aarson and Porthos. Oh yes, I forgot to mention him. He is Kalashtar and he has psionic powers. I… don’t like him in the slightest. Nor do I like Rosy, his Pegasus that is living with him on Viren’s ship. I may have learned to tolerate Aarson by now, but I get a feeling I will have a much harder time with Porthos. That is, if I need to at all. But I am getting ahead of myself.

After asking passersby if they had seen the two, I tumbled through a crowd of worshippers, with Tycobi nudging his way through behind me. I passed through an empty room into one with a large pool of water where Ulahra was already building a raft. Porthos was in front of me, attacking her. That was his mistake. She defended herself angrily and hurt him in the process. He had been weakened by the effects of his own magic and did not survive Ulahra’s attacks. Part of me rejoiced at the sight, but it was silenced by my conscious. He had still been on our side and not done anything to deserve my hatred. Except being who he was. Forced to leave the body there to be recovered later, Aarson and I ran after her, yelling at her to talk to us. We were ready to kill her, but did not want to. We were instead intent on understanding what in the world was going on. After the water, there was a small chasm we jumped across, followed by guard we snuck past. Finally, in the middle of a long staircase, our words got through to her and she stopped running. In the meantime, Freya had destroyed the blonde women. We met atop the staircase, looking over all of Shambala. A majestic sight, were it not for energy bursts of some kind, moving across the sky.

We were led back to the main chamber where we examined the girl’s possessions. Among them was a bag of something very evil, a Daelkyr symbiote bag as I am told, and the stolen item they had been yelling about: a living breastplate that gives one the powers of a Daelkyr underlord. As we talked to Yahli and Ulahra, a scribe took notes. At his inquiry of our names both Freya and I refused to give it. I believe our reasons may not be too different. I have made enough enemies in my lifetime and I do not wish my path to be traceable so easily. As we left, Yahli presented us with food and some of the monastery’s important religious works.

When we reached Viren’s airship to leave, the was a blue, ancient dragon by it. A storm guardian. I may be 132 years old, but I have never actually seen a dragon. And no, Freya’s little Pip does not count. I speak of true, giant dragons. This one terrified me enough to step behind Aarson. Let it eat him first, not me! And I admit, I was counting on him having more experience with these creatures. Fortunately, the Dragon only wanted to talk, not eat. They spoke of many things that I still cannot out into context. They are a strange group. But for now, I am with them.

Barrakas 1

Today we reached Davanara. Freya has business here, but it will not take long. Not even long enough to explore the town. Later today we leave for Sharn.

I try to keep busy by doing exercises and meditating. I had been doing balancing exercises on the railing of the ship, but when I saw a blue shadow in the clouds it scared me enough to make me stumble and almost fall. I think I will be staying my quarters for a few days. I still don’t trust that dragon.

Barrakas 16

We have just arrived in Sharn. It’s raining and because Freya decided to teleport us to their house, I have no idea what the city actually looks like. That will be taken care of soon though – Nirra already promised to take me shopping. It has been decided that Tycobi and I will stay and share a room in the house. The house they tell me is in Middle Oak Bridge on the North Edge of the Upper Plateau, or something quite like that. I have not the slightest idea what that actually means… But I must go now. We are going out – a place called the Broken Anvil.

Rhan 9

I cannot believe we are already leaving Sharn again. A fascinating city to which I will be delighted to return. The past days have been so busy that I forgot to write about them before. I shall redeem myself now that we are travelling again, headed for another adventure.

While we were going to the Broken Anvil, Nirra took Tycobi with her to Morgrave University to deliver the news of Porthos’ death to his wife. I was glad I did not need to come along for I am afraid I would have made some rather tasteless comments. They told us later that Nirra disguised herself and with the help of Tycobi’s music informed the poor soul as soothingly as they could.

Meanwhile, I met Matron Tara, owner of the Broken Anvil, an elderly Halfling. We had been seated at the wrong table (this appears to be the party’s usual hangout spot so they have laid claim to certain seats). Aarson was quite upset, but I was sorted out in the end. We then to talked to Matron Tara for quite a while. We, of course, meant them talking while I mostly listened. We were served some truly excellent food, better than I had eaten in a long, long time: lamb, Cornish hens with diced and pureed vegetables. A feast indeed! I learned that the pub was having a harder time than before because competition had risen. Freya then paid Tara to clear out the tavern for the night, so that we would have it for ourselves. We were on a mission: To selected a First Mate for Viren and the airship that he could now truly call his.

At dinner time Nirra and Tycobi had rejoined us. We were gorging ourselves on yet more wonderful food and drink until the candidates arrived. Viren was sitting on a throne-like chair he had built from two of the simple tavern chairs. First, there was Lyre, a female Gnome bard. Her chosen art was oratory – how ridiculous! My dancer nature was compelled to put her in her place, but I did not. It would not have been right. Besides, I was certain Viren would not choose someone as foolish as her. The second choice was a male Half-Orc monk named Mire. I paid little attention to him, but he seemed qualified enough. The third and last, however, was my favorite. A female Half-Elf swashbuckler, Kuir had impressive weapon skills and a general manner that was pleasant enough without being overly submissive. She would stand her ground, I was certain of it. And I was pleased that Viren chose her for the task. Once business was done, I asked Tycobi to play his Hurdy Gurdy so I could dance. It was a wonderful, peaceful night, fully lacking any fear or worry of being attacked.

It must have been a few days later that I woke up with a sudden, sharp pain in my lower back, a sort of burning sensation. I tried to stretch as much as I could, but it would not go away. It dulled over the course of the day, so I decided to simply ignore whatever it was. But at night, when we were sitting together at the house, I went to pick up a book that had fallen on the floor. As I bend over, Aarson all of a sudden yelled out loudly: “Look! She’s got one!” Confused I looked up and asked him what I had? But instead of answering me, as any normal person would have (remember, this is Aarson we are talking about and he is somewhat peculiar) he ripped off the cloth that was covering his arm and revealed a dragonmark of enormous size. I had seen some before – Tycobi had developed one upon losing his parents – but not like this! Puzzled, I simply stared at him for a while before finally uttering the obvious: “I have… a dragonmark? Impossible. You must be joking!” What followed were long explanations about the origins and types of dragonmarks. Some, like Tycobi’s, came from a personal trauma. Others, like mine, were in fact more like a disease. I learned that party had in the past transmitted the mark onto new members that stuck around for a while. I am still uncertain what to do with this. Freya says I carry one that some people consider to be evil, but I cannot cover it well in my dancing clothes. Maybe that is not necessary anyway. I am an outsider already, dragonmark or not. I may as well wear it with pride. Now I simply have to discover its power and how to use it. Simply. I feel like it has something to do with darkness and light, with darkness that is not natural to be light. But that is only an impression I gather from the dreams I have had since it appeared. I may be very wrong.

One of the reasons we have come to Sharn was to meet a shifter named Aarson who the party has been in touch with before. They had asked him to tell what he knows of the plane of ice. We met him and a quiet Half-Orc in a tavern. The rest of his party, he revealed were left in Xendrik. I swear I saw a glimmer of amusement and pure evil in Freya’s eyes when he told us. Sometimes I forget that she has a dark side that I have learned to accept and ignore. It does not bother me at all, but sometimes I just forget that it is there. The information he gave us was scattered and Shifter Aarson was all in all in rather poor condition I believe.

Nirra is the only one who really cares for the guy, so the rest of us decided to leave them alone. Freya and our Aarson went on a walk with the little zoo they have acquired – the dogs Cain and Abel, and Pip and Miranda. What a strange sight. I asked Shen to show me around the city some more. We went to the Slanted Cistern, a rather interesting bar with plenty of games of chance. There were memorabilia all around, one of them a spell component pouch Shen recognized. He told me the story behind it, about a Warforged wizard they had defeated. We then went on to throw a few knives and I am not ashamed to admit that I was proud to beat Shen at it. We both did rather well, and were asked to do some tricks. We decided that I would dance and Shen would throw knives at me. It was difficult, but he did not hit me. Considering we had never tried this before, we did rather well.

Just before we left, we also brought Porthos back to life. My dislike for him is growing every day. His manner is just truly annoying, especially his desperate desire to be friends, to make me like him. I dislike him all the more for it. He has yet to be useful to me. Or useful at all. I have not seen it yet, and I do not know that I will.

Rhan 19

What an adventure! I am so very glad we got to leave this place! Way too cold for my taste…

We arrived in Frostweave early this morning, having to abandon the ship as it was starting to malfunction due to the cold. Freya teleported us down to where we assumed the entrance to Risia to be, the plane of ice. Once we arrived there we found ourselves fighting two ice dwarves, vendigos to be exact. One of the bastards bit me, but I could fight the unspeakable urges that come with their curse… Freya was almost struck down in the battle, but thankfully Nirra saved her with a potion. As we were preparing for the entrance to Risia to open up, the ground began to rumble and a gigantic, frosty monster began rising from the ground. An undead beast, as we discovered. Tycobi almost single-handedly got rid of it by healing it. I was so proud of him!

We proceeded into a cave, where we found two penguins. Cute little things that Tycobi and Nirra could not resist. They decided to bring them with and even named them – Beowulf and Paul. I tried to talk them out of it, but they would not listen. Poor little things will be heartbroken when they understand that a penguin cannot live in tropical Sharn…

As we made our way down into the cave, we ran into a wall of ice – the entrance to Risia! It instantly got much colder, even though it already was much colder than I would have preferred. We had not fought elements for long when the ground around us moved once more, spitting out ice creatures that appeared quite familiar. Despite their blank faces, they were perfect ice copies of some of the party – of Viren, Shen, Freya and me, all on a Crimson Dawn made of ice. I have experienced enough battles to be confident in my abilities, but after this combat I am ever more certain. I fought my ice double – and it was a vicious fight. I never realized how specialized my fighting style has become and how rarely I encounter opponents that are similar in any way at all. And that ice me… she kicked ass. Pardon my language. But I killed her anyway, because the flesh and blood me is still more effective than one created from frozen water. We shattered the rest of the doubles into little shards of ice too and then abandoned the ice ship as it was crumbling underneath us.

We made our way up the tower that was standing out at the heart of the plane. After several smaller encounters, we found the seal at the top, hidden in a strange fog. It was protected by a number of ice creatures and an old, dragon-like creature. It was so big that we were only fighting its head and neck… But as the seal broke, I felt a strange sensation coming over me, a kind of tingly of my skin. I am uncertain what it is, but I feel like I have become slightly faster and effective at dodging out of the way and like my skin has become… resistant to something. Acid maybe. I will use the journey back to Sharn to find out for sure.

Rhan 26

We are back in Sharn. I have discovered that I was right – I am now less susceptible to acid and my evasion skills have improved. I think this must be what happens when these seals break. Fascinating. Porthos has been affected even more, taking on some of the characteristics of the ice plane. His eyes are bluer than before and his skin is colder it seems. It does not make me like him more…

Nirra and Tycobi donated Beowulf and Paul to the zoo, after we convinced them that they would be miserable staying with us. They will be going to see them quite a lot I think.

Aryth 15

We are headed for Thronehold on the Crimson Dawn. Time to recap what happened since our return to Sharn.

Shortly after we arrived, Freya received a package from Sir’kill, a bowl that will point us toward the next seal. It appears this Sir’kill is a dragon. I’m not sure how I feel about it, but I guess I have no choice but to tolerate or ignore it for now. As long as I don’t have to face him, I think I need not care.

While were in Sharn Freya and Nirra entertained themselves by scrying on the Expedias, a party of young adventurers they met a while back. I am not sure what went on exactly, but at one point Nirra took me with her to meet a dwarf named Bodok and his wife, Elf Ane. They have a church, the Church of the Northwinds, and they are somewhat peculiar. Ane is quite… how I should say… blonde. I think she means well, but it is exhausting. Aarson brought them a cake with added “herbs” that caused her some discomfort. I know I should be less entertained at the thought of her discomfort, but she is nearly impossible to be around. At the church, there were several catatonic people waiting to be healed by Freya. They reminded us of Viren’s crewmen that Freya healed…

Tycobi has indeed been going to the zoo a lot to see Paul. He met a group of Halflings there that had brought an injured glidewing. He helped them heal it and they allowed him to keep it.

And now we are on the way to Thronehold to find some magical robes that Freya wants. Should be easy enough – after all, there will be no extra planar shenanigans. Probably.

Aryth 25

When we arrived in Thronehold, a few guards from House Deneith stopped us to inquire what we were doing near the closed up palace. Nirra presented a set of her papers to them, but the guard quickly realized that they were fake. Fortunately, they let us go once they confiscated her papers. So naturally, we decided to break into the palace.

The landscape inside looked strange, like the vegetation had taken back the area. There were giant roots everywhere, and the stone furniture in the outer ring was broken. As we entered the palace we encountered four rugged, dirty guards screaming that they were going to kill us. Of course, instead it was us who killed them. We continued down a tunnel into what we later learned was the intestines of a creature. Had I known that as this point, I may have hesitated…

On the bottom of the tunnel, we had to fight purple worms, one of which tried to eat my poor little Tycobi. In the middle of the battle, a beholder showed up and created an anti-magic field that impeded most of the party greatly. Freya almost died, but was saved at the last minute by her loyal Nirra. Viren, however, was less lucky and ended as worm food. Not for long though, as we raised him once the battle was over. It is handy having Freya with us for sure.

Next, we enter a big, dark cave where we had to fight a tentacle monster and two shadowy mastiffs. We managed to kill one of the mastiffs and the monster, but the y appeared to be fading in and out of existence. Also, I was struck by a curse that made the rest of the adventure much harder than I had hoped. There was also a pillar in the middle of the room that started talking to Freya, claiming in a strange, otherworldly voice that we would meet it soon.

As we passed through the shadowy intestines of the creature, we suddenly found ourselves in a forest. Well, not a forest as such, but there were trees. Unfortunately they turned out to be creatures rather than actual trees. Of course. Ever since my mother died I have not seen nature in the same way, and this encounter only solidified my suspicions. The tree creatures did not seem to require oxygen, which the entity we were inside was able to regulate and take away from us. I must have fallen unconscious, because the next thing I know was waking up because Shen hit me. Apparently, it is a trick he has up his sleeve that I was not aware of – he healed me by hurting me. But even stranger than that was where we were at: It appeared to be the inside of the force bubble. We began moving the bubbles until we fell and landed in a splash of acid – most likely getting ready to be digested by the entity.

We felt the bubble falling down for a while, and when we landed they dissolved. The room we found ourselves in was a large cavern, and above us we could see countless of the purple worms we had fought earlier. Worse than that, however, were strange faces attached to tentacles on the wall that began speaking to and yelling at us in all sorts of languages. It gave me the chills and for the first time I realized just how uncomfortable this place made me feel. Freya tried to negotiate with them and did a fair job, as they did let us pass to the room where we would find the robes we were looking for.

It was a room with even more roots growing out of the walls, and a force field in the middle, protecting what looked to be the seed of the entity. We had learned earlier that if we could remove the seed, the entity must go with it. I had already suggested, quite forcefully, that we make the Formian Queen a present and have the plane of law fall into chaos. In the room, there were a hand full of guards, two astral constructs as well as the man wearing the robes Freya desired. It was going to be a long and nasty fight. We had barely made our first moves when a spell struck me and left me confused so I began running right into the roots that managed to entangle me in my confusion. When the confusion finally disappeared, I found myself on the other side of the room, fighting a guard. I am not sure what it was, but while I tried to strike him, I became weary of fighting. My actions were less and less precise and I did not know just why I was there in the first place. What business did I have here? I owed Freya no favors, so why go and endanger my and Tycobi’s lives? It all seemed to make no sense. Was there a purpose to this fight? Shen killed the guard I was struggling with, but that did not cure my weariness. I don’t know what they did to me, but I never want to have this feeling of purposelessness and stupor again.

Meanwhile, Porthos was struck down and killed by the Captain of the guards who managed to disappear before the others got to him. Yet they had what we came for – the man in the robes was dead and we were ready to go home.

Olarune 15

We have been home in Sharn for quite a while now. It seems I always forget to write down the events of life when we are not travelling. Life in Sharn is busy, much busier than I ever anticipated. It’s been so long that I had a home… I am beginning to get used to it. I don’t know if I should be afraid of that…

Angry with myself that I was so unprepared to be struck by a curse, I went on a few extensive shopping trips here in Sharn, improving my equipment and buying as many potions as I can carry. While out and about, I also found Tycobi a gift that hopefully will come in handy as we embark on this next trip. Oh yes, we are leaving today and be on our way to find Mabar, the plane of night…

While we were home, Freya has started a church so she could harness the full powers of her robes. I do not quite understand how it works, but as long as Freya is on my side, I believe it does not matter.

On my birthday, I decided to take the party out for dinner to Sannid’s Restaurant in the Platinum Heights. The food and wine were delightful, but the same is not to be said for the unexpected company that turned up. Sir’kill was there, crashing my party. I did not realize who he was until he introduced himself, as he appeared to us in human form. Damn that dragon for ruining a perfectly lovely night! With him he had a Halfling girl named Thrae who he has put with the party. Tycobi has taken a liking to her, but I do not share his feelings. I will keep a watchful eye on her so she does not corrupt my naïve little one. Unfortunately, Sir’kill’s appearance at the restaurant made me uncomfortable and grouchy and I am ashamed to say that I had a glass (or two) too many. On the way home I had to hold on to Shen who did not seem to mind. He was very sweet and even got me a birthday gift. When we got home, we had another unexpected and unfortunate encounter. It was an undead creature named Kratos who the party knew when he was alive. Because I was more than unhelpful, Nirra decided to put me to bed at this point.

After a rude awakening by Porthos (Oh yes, we brought him back – again. I wish he would just stay dead.) and Aarson who had a little too much fun with my hangover, they told we what had happened after I fell asleep. Kratos is a bodak, sent by his master to make sure we come see him in Mabar. They told me to be watchful and stay away from him if I can.

We are leaving now, and Freya intends to put Kratos in the stable. I’m sure Rosie will be pleased with her decision… It may be long journey.

Therendor 1

We can already see our destination in the distance, the Gloaming in the Eldeen Reaches. It is a burnt, rotten scar in the landscape. Quite nasty to look at, but probably a good indicator of things to come. Porthos has just had a change of heart and left us. I guess he was sick of dying all the time…

Before we got here, we picked up Freya and Aarson who had visited Aarson’s father in Eldeen Reaches. He is a rather crude and uncharming Elf. I understand why Aarson does not like to talk about him or to visit him. I have no desire to ever see that man again.

But we are getting ready to leave. Traveler, protect us in our endeavor!

Therendor 2

We began by literally dropping in on a ragtag band of worshippers. They were mostly commoners, armed with pitchforks and clothed in what must at some point have been sturdy fabrics. Their mere appearance disgusted me. And yet they were nothing compared to the hideous and excessively large creature constructed from corpses that was towering over them off to the side. In the center of this bizarre scenery was a Druid, clad in pelts and armed with a Sphere of Annihilation. Freya was exited and quietly informed me what it was since I had never seen one before. It frightens me to retell her words so I shall say no more than that it is potent and highly dangerous.

We stood quietly in the branches above the crowd, observing them for a short while. It was rather disturbing what we saw. While the Druid directed the worshippers right into his sphere where they would never be heard from again, the large construct commenced eating the commoners, thereby making them part of its monstrosity of a body. We were forced to get a move on when the Druid noticed us and sent a number of dog-like creatures after us. While Kratos invisibly began taking care of the dogs and the more dangerous commoners, Shen and I turned toward the construct. As we began wounding it, it started falling apart and creating smaller undead creatures. Shen proceeded to hit the construct while I got rid of the undead.

Meanwhile, Freya was battling the druid, but did not succeed. He turned her into stone and had it not been for Nirra she would have shattered into a million pieces. But Nirra, blessed her devoted little heart, saved her goddess and killed the blasphemer that had dared to attack Freya. Once the commoners realized the druid had died, they fled in a panic. Viren, however, was able to return Freya to her natural form.

Meanwhile, as I was just about the slay the last of the undead creatures, the large fire near me came to life. A fire elemental! It caught me quite off guard, but I tried my best. Unfortunately, my best was not good enough and the elemental was able to take over my mind. I lost all control and began running to the large gaping hole where the druid’s sphere had originated. I dove right in, unable to move out of my own free will. It reminded me of my time as a Formian prisoner and I grew angry, viciously fighting for control. But I could not change that I was falling rapidly into unknown depths. Suddenly, I felt someone grabbing my feet and holding on to me. Shen! It was just the burst of confidence I needed to break free from the fire elemental’s control. As soon as I was able to, I held onto Shen as close as I could as he was slowing our fall. Above us, the rest of our party appeared, deliberately sent down with us by Freya who, despite her best attempts, had been unable to control and ward of the sphere of annihilation.

At the end of the fall there was no ground as such. Instead, we landed in a disgusting pool of thick blood with nowhere else to go. Before I could so much as utter my disgust, Shen who was still holding me, dove into the pool. We did not find ground here either but broke out in a large cave. We had arrived in Mabar. Next to us, the rest of our party grasped for air, spitting out blood they had involuntarily swallowed. My poor little Tycobi was so nauseated that he could barely move for a while.

The room we were in was indeed rather large, but filled with little lightning bugs. In the twilight they produced we discovered four nightwalkers with too many limbs that could reach as far as the edge of blood pool we were in. Off in the distance was a creature that was nothing but a giant face. Shen, eager to leave and to fight his way out if he had too, struck one of the nightwalkers and was overcome with madness and rage because of it. Afraid of the effects of their touch, we avoided the four creatures and moved on to the large face that was blocking our ascend up a spiral staircase. It’s skin was surprisingly sturdy and it needed all of our combined efforts to rid ourselves of the beast.

Beyond the stairs, we found a Lich named Morthair, whom Kratos introduced to us as his Master. Rather inhospitable, he summoned a Death Wraith that both Shen and Freya had encountered before. But instead of engaging us in a fight right away, the Master explained that a long time ago, when Freya and Nirra had both died it had been him that took a piece of their soul and inflicted them with the condition that is called tomb-tainted soul. He was now offering Freya to undo this if she agreed to become a Cleric of the Lady Vol. He further promised to turn over Kratos into Freya’s possession. She agreed to his proposition. Nirra, too, accepted upon gaining the knowledge that this kind of rebirth would allow her to become a true Cleric of Freya. She’s a strange one, that cat.

Meanwhile, I looked around the cave we were in, paved with coffins and scattered with other strange objects. When I opened one of the coffins, a zombie’s hand clawed at me and I quickly threw it shut again. I then walked over to what appeared to be a brain under a glas dome, looking at it rather curiously. While standing there, Kratos walked up next to me, telling me not to touch it. I insisted that I was not touching it, but he seemed to disagree with my definition of the word touch. And to prove me wrong, he grabbed my behind. Shocked and disgusted, I jumped away, drawing my scimitars on him and yelling rather loudly. It was beyond unexpected to see this mostly lifeless creature do such a thing. But I quickly understood as I looked beyond him to Morthair’s throne that was crumbling into pieces. The seal was breaking. Kratos was regaining his soul because of it!

The man Kratos, however, was even less desirable than the bodak Kratos. The first word he said to me once fully human was too inappropriate for me to repeat in this journal. I am still disgusted by it. Before he even knew it he has evoked my hatred and disdain and I wish nothing more than to throw him down, for any of our enemies to feast on. What’s worse is that he will not leave me alone since we have returned to the ship. I am guarded and trying to feel out his invisible presence constantly. This will be a long flight.

Therendor 5

We have returned to Sharn and immediately taken to our usual shopping activities. I must say, I rather enjoy having a place to return to after an adventure. It is rather sweet to have my own bed somewhere.

Therendor 15

Last night, I freaked out a little and needed to get away so I dragged Shen with me to go drinking. A much needed night out.

Thrae seems to have a crush on my little Tycobi and now everyone want to have “the talk” with him. He’s not old enough for that. He never will be! Freya gave him his first pipe. They are forcing me to accept that my baby is growing up, but I cannot do it. He will always be the child I found in the ruins.

Eyre 5

We are back in Thronehold, the place where a living entity nearly mistook us for a light snack. I’m not sure that I want to be here.

Eyre 6

Unbelievable. We have a new base of operations now. Or rather, we will once we make it slightly more habitable. But I shall start at the beginning.

Upon arriving in Thronehold we were stopped by a few guards right away. Nirra, hoping that honesty would work, told them we were here to stop the Tarasque, but they only laughed in her face. But we were able to convince them that we were in fact no one other than the Onyx Diamonds, a different adventuring group. Viren even made a statue of us entitle The Onyx Diamonds. I hope they never see it for it must inevitably make them quite angry.

We proceeded to look for the entrance to the plane of Eberron underground and must have spent at least a few hours in search of it, until we finally came upon a part of the floor that was covered with dragonmarks. The wall seemed to be fluid and some kind of portal. Without further hesitation, we walked through the portal to find ourselves in an old-fashioned, long abandoned room. Old, dusty furniture was strewn all over the place and we even encounter a dead, yet strangely preserved body. None of this was really of interest, but we discovered three different portals similar to the one we had just passed. The first one led nowhere but toward the wall behind it. Freya consulted her bowl for the way and told us it was pointing toward both of the remaining portals.

Freya and Kratos each moved closer to examine one of them, but got too close. All of a sudden, they had disappeared. Faced with the decision how to split the party, Tycobi chose Kratos, for whom he has started to have a most strange affection. Needless to say, I do not share those feelings. I was torn between following my child and staying as far away from Kratos as could. But as I suddenly remembered the incident with Thrae, I grew angry and chose to follow Freya instead.

We chased through numerous rooms in what appeared to be a castle of some kind. Little more noteworthy than our usual activities. However, when we entered an abandoned alchemists’ lab, we – almost literally – ran into a pit fiend. While I was already in position to find, Kratos decided on a different path of action. He convinced the devil to help us! What an insane and dangerous move!

While having him with us allowed us to avoid a few smaller fights in the next rooms, it shortly thereafter would turn out to be an awful decision. We entered a large room that had little more than a giant mechanical apparatus in the middle. We moved closer to understand its function, when suddenly force barriers sprung up around us, trapping us. Nirra right away turned to the machine to try and disable it. The pit fiend teleported to the part that had Freya locked in, who was holding a key that had allowed us to pass several of the portals. I, however, was trapped on the opposite side of the machine and could hardly see them. Trapped by myself, I was startled when Kratos appeared right next to me, rambling on about how he could not leave me alone right here. Before I had chance to rebuff his rather badly timed advances, spears shot out of the apparatus and we were forced to duck. For once I chose to let his stupidity go and told him to hurry up and do something about these walls. Trapped, I was utterly useless and nothing makes me angrier than feeling trapped.

Meanwhile, Freya had managed to get rid of the pit fiend by transporting him back to the room we found him in. Nirra kept working on the machine till it was completely shut down and we then found ourselves in a similar room with one difference: Instead of an apparatus that needed disabling, this one was crumbling on its own. We found the seal!

Afterwards, we decided to claim ownership of the castle and use it as a new base camp once our abilities began outgrowing those of the mortal realm of Eberron. A rather nice plan.

Nymm 2

We have made our way back to Sarlona, on a mission for Aarson. He did not stop nagging us about the living breastplate we discovered on our last trip here. So we have come back to steal it. Simply enough, right?

We pretended to study the breastplate, but in reality we exchange it with a plaster copy Nirra had crafted. A commotion ensued and we managed to sneak out shielded by Viren’s invisibility bubble. Only when we left did we realize that we had not been the cause of the trouble. Rather, the dragon Uhlara, whom we had left in the monastery’s prison was escaping. I have a feeling this is not the last we have seen of her.

Nymm 14

We are preparing to embark on our next mission. But first I want to sum up a few of the events that transpired while we were in town.

We celebrated Freya and Shen’s birthday. Bodok and Ane came over to our house for a little celebration. Aarson had a rather unusual gift for his beloved: His own beating heart in a box. In his chest there no longer is a heart of flesh, but one of stone. It is rather strange, but it fits their relationship unusually well. Some might even consider it romantic.

I had a gift of my own for Shen. I have grown tired of his gentlemen behavior. I may have many years to live, but I nevertheless do not have years to waste. To move things a bit further along, I awaited him in his room at night. In his bed. That is all our companions know, even though they have tried to pry details from both of us. I shall write no more in case they ever find this journal. This night shall remain our secret.

Nymm 15

One year tomorrow.

One year has passed since the party freed me from the Formian Queen. I cannot believe that time has passed this quickly. And yet, I can. I’m starting to think that it may be time for me to journey on. But I am not ready to give these people up completely. They are the first since my time in Valenar that felt like a family to me. Unbelievable that I am comparing the fair Elves of Valenar to this ragtag band of individuals. They are smart and crafty, but they nevertheless seem to be bound more by coincidence than by anything else.

Now that I think about it, I feel the urge to see my friends in Valenar. It has been too long.

Nymm 16

I have just received word that Carneth is marching on Valenar. I am afraid for my friends. I wish to help them, but we are about to go on another mission. I have faith in their strength, but that does not mean I worry any less. I must keep my ears open how this fight progresses. I may have to abandon this party to go and help them.

Nymm 17

We have stopped by Aarson’s father in the Eldeen Reaches. He was no more pleasant than the last time we saw him. But more importantly, we are about to enter Thelanis, the Fairy Court. I will report once we return.

Nymm 20

Even though we were gone for only half a day, more than three days have passed in Eberron. Time moves quickly in Thelanis. It is overall a rather unusual while not precisely unpleasant place. There is too much magic for my own comfort, but it is not hostile as such. Nirra was rather enchanted with the place and wishes to build a summer residence here.

Upon entering the plane, we were faced with small gnomish creatures that attacked us, as well as a nymph that attempted to blind us. As it turned out, the fight was nothing more than a spectacle for a hidden audience. I was rather distraught. While entertaining people has been my living for a decent while now (when I was not working as a mercenary), I do not appreciate doing so unwittingly.

Once we had left the theater behind, we began exploring and made our way to the Faery King’s court. It took much persuasion on our part for the guard to let us in. Charm, lies and dance all did little to impress him. I care not to admit it, but it was Kratos whose outrages story for the King (told to him in disguise) bought us entry. We were invited to a meal that, as it later turned out, was partially poisoned. Kratos went about and courted the Faery princess Anp. Nirra was chatting with the King, inquiring about other another catfolk she had seen, whom the King promptly summoned for her to talk to. The Catfolk was travelling with a man named Findelas and they seem to explore the planes not unlike us.

As the meal came to an end, the dance began. But shortly after the first dance, the King collapsed. He was dead. Freya ran over to heal him, which seemed to anger the prince and sole heir to Thelanis. Also, a strange goblin that Freya, Shen and Aarson had encountered previously was there and unhappy about Freya’s choice to help. The poisoned food, from which Freya had cleverly steered us away, had caused most of the court to fall ill and it took all of Freya’s might to heal them. But in the end, the seal broke with us at peace. It had been the King’s elaborate gold necklace.

Poison. How I hate it! It is a coward’s weapon of choice…

Nymm 25

Back in Sharn. We have received a wedding invitation from Matron Tara. Needless to say that we rushed down to meet her husband-to-be. He is a brewer named Ista, about her age. A decent fellow, but a bit reserved. We have decided to plan the wedding for them.

We also came up with a name for our band of travelers – The Aberrants. Now the Onyx Diamond will at least have a name when they look to take our heads off for impersonating them…

???

Viren has heard word that an explorers’ mission into the Mournlands has ended poorly and we have been called up for a rescue mission. We are already near, I can feel it…

Sweet merciful Traveler, please never bring me near this region again! It only holds pain for me. This time I did not lose Tycobi, but I was tormented with visions of Shen in agony and dying and I lost part of my thigh ad kneecap. I was so stunned I barely realized it until Nirra brought me back to the ship. It is all rather fuzzy. I remember my scimitars started having a life of their own and that there was a tetramorph attacking me…

Never again.

???

I have decided that I must leave my friends behind for a while. I must let my sweet Tycobi grow up to become a man. I simply find myself unable to accept that he is far past the age at which he needs me to take care of him. I have finally realized this as the injuries I sustained in Thelanis have visibly aged me. I now look as old as I feel. Too old to play protective mother to my beloved child. I must go, as much as it pains me.

Where I will go? Valenar. There is war there, and I can feel deep in my heart that Terlor is still somewhere out there. He needs me more now than Tycobi does. I do not wish to hurt Shen, so I will not tell him who I plan to assist. I shall miss him and his sweetness. I do not deserve his kindness. He is a good soul and I am still a mercenary at heart. I feel I shall never rid myself of that. I worry about my Abberants, but they have fared well on their own long before I met them. They will continue doing so.

I attach a copy of the letter that I leave behind tonight upon taking my leave:

My friends,
__By the time you find this, I will have left Sharn behind. It pains me to do so, but I feel I must. You have heard the news that Karrnath is at war with Valenar. But what you do not know is that I have history in Valenar. I have friends there that need me more than you do at this time.
__My journey will take me through the Talenta Planes, where I found my dear Tycobi so many years ago. I can see still see you as you were that day. I always will. You will forever be the child that needed me and it has been difficult for me to understand that you are a man now. Having been separated from you for so long, I now leave you again. But this time I chose to do so. It will be good for both of us. I must accept that you are no longer a child. To do so I will travel the Talenta plains when the war is over, before I return to you. Only your kind will be able to help me learn and accept the man you have become. I am proud of you, my little one. You fight even more bravely and with more vigor than I could have ever taught you. Go on and be great, little one. I cannot wait to see what you will learn while I am away. In the meantime, I trust you shall find any support and advice you may desire from Shen and Viren, or from Aarson. I trust you will not disappoint me.
__Freya, I thank you for the hospitality you have shown me this past year. You did not ask for a new companion and I did not seek company. And yet it has been adventurous and exciting and once again having a home to return to has been rather calming. I hope that I shall retain your favor until I return. You are a unique soul, Freya Stormshard, and it has been an honor knowing you.
__Nirra, crafty little Nirra. I shall forever be in your debt for freeing me from the Formians. You have been a great companion and I will gladly stand with you in battle once again. Go forth and be true to yourself and you shall never need anything more than that.
__Aarson. I have come a long way from despising you to considering you a friend. You have saved me more than once and proven your worth. I am in your debt, but I intend to repay it upon my return. Look after Tycobi for me.
__Viren – it has been a pleasure knowing you. You are a quiet yet resourceful man. I thank you for your hospitality aboard your ship. May she sail the skies for decades to come, and may her Captain stand strong at the helm. The Traveler be with you!
__Shen, my dear. No words need be said. I am sorry for disappearing into the dark night, but I must. I shall return, you have my word.
__And Kratos, stay away from my son.
__My friends, I will return to you soon for you have grown dear to my heart and I do not wish to leave. And yet I must. I shall be with you in sprit on your journeys to come.
__Faithfully yours,Larina Valarin

???

After weeks of travel, I have not only lost track of time, but I have also finally reached Valenar. I have received word that Terlor is caught in the middle of the war. None of the Elves I have come across seem to recall who I am. It might be that I have never met them, or that simply so much time has passed that I have faded from their memory. I wonder if Terlor will still recall who I am. I am still uncertain if I should gather more information before I seek him out or hurry on to assist him.

I am restless. I know it is unwise to have come, to seek him out without warning. Three decades have passed since I last saw him, yet I look even older than that. Cursed be Fairy magic! Yet my heart yearns to protect him. I may not have been ready or willing to stay with him back then, but I have never stopped loving him. I know this now for a certainty. Being back here has wakened so many memories I thought lost in the darkness. I know now. I must go at once.

???

Last night, I arrived on the battle field. Terlor, despite his sweet nature, is among the highest command of this host. Tonight, when the soldiers gather around their fires, I will go to him and offer my assistance.

???

My worries were for naught. Terlor embraced me as the old friend that I am. I could see that his love for me has not been diminished by time, although its nature is less romantic than it is sentimental now. We spent most of the night talking about the years that passed while we were apart. He is married now, to a beautiful Bard called Prina whom he plans to introduce me to when she returns from her mission with the outriders. I told him about Tycobi and the Aberrants, although I could not bring myself to tell him about Shen and I, for fear that I have ruined this by leaving him, as I ruin everything. Terlor is a comforting presence, just as he always has been. Yet it was more than obvious that the war has exhausted him. He is not cut out for this kind of lengthy battle. He was much relieved when I offered to join the fight on the front lines. Yet he warned me that this is unlike any battle I have fought before. Little does he know that no two battles are ever the same, and I am always prepared for the unexpected.

It is almost dawn, I must rest now for the enemy does not give us much rest. They will attack when there is enough light for them to do so.

???

The weeks pass. We fight, we rest, we bury our dead. And then we do it all over again. I have managed to come away mostly unharmed out of all battles, thanks to Terlor by my side. But he grows more tired every day. We will not be able to resist for much longer.

???

The events that have transpired in the last 48 hours are beyond my comprehension, yet I must attempt to write them down. It is the only way I can hope to stay sane.

I am back with the Aberrants. You ask why I journey back, leaving the war? The answer is that I did not. I died. Yet I am here, writing this entry in possession of not just my own body, but my own body turned immortal. Let me start from the last thing I remember of Valenar.

I awoke from my meditation in the dark of night, to the sound of metal clinging and soldiers screaming. The battle had come to the heart of our host. I had no time to wonder how this was possible. Instead, I jumped up and grabbed my scimitar belt. As I was putting it on, a silent hand grabbed me from behind, covering my mouth and muffling the instinctive scream I let out. But I never even got to utter a tone, for a second dark hand ran a blade across my throat. Just for another moment, I could feel the blood streaming down onto my armor and then I was surrounded by merciful darkness.

How long I lingered incorporeally in the darkness, with no awareness of myself or my surrounding I cannot say. But finally, I felt myself grow real again. It must have taken no longer than a heartbeat, but to me it seemed like a lifetime. Yet where I found myself was more shocking than the awareness of having just been killed. I was in a large gave, with a group of Beholders ahead of me, and the Aberrants around me.

I cannot say who was more shocked – the party, the beholders or myself – but in battle there is no time to consider such oddities. My heart made a jump when I saw Shen who smiled at me warmly before returning his attention to the enemy ahead. I quickly glanced around and was distraught not to see Tycobi among them. Where was he? Dead? Left behind? Simply out of my sight? But I had no time to dwell.

The fight was short, but tough. The Beholders were not like I remembered them. Rather they were floating and moved away like air bubbles when hit. Yet, as always, we prevailed. After all of them were gone, we took a moment to realize what had happened. There was no time for lengthy explanations, but a few words sufficed to assess the basics of situation. I was most likely actually dead. Freya said I might be stuck on this plane for now, in between life and death. Not an appealing prospect in the least. Tycobi and Thrae were not with the party at this time. You cannot imagine how relieved I felt when I heard that my little one was well. Kratos, however, had not been so lucky. Although I did not learn the details of his death at this moment, I did so upon our return to Sharn. He had died trying to defend Nirra from a Wraith. I am not ashamed to say that his death did not sadden me, but made my heart take a little jump instead. I never had an ounce of love for the man. When I learned that he had been working on adopting Tycobi I was tempted to ask where they had buried him so I might dance on his grave. Out of respect for my friends, however, I restrained myself.

In addition to the members missing from to the party, there were two new faces. At least new to me. One is Ellina Twill, a Favored Soul with wings. Freya tells me she has been adventuring with them on and off for a while. The other new face is a fellow Elf from Aerenal named Astiel. It appears he is an ancestor of Shen and Freya’s (or so he claims) who was petrified a very long time ago and recently freeded by Viren whom he now owes a life debt. He is more old fashioned than the worst of the elders that I remember from my childhood. He does not mean ill, I know it. Yet he is an unusual character to get used to.

After we had taken that brief moment to grasp the situation, we had to press on. The seal would not wait for us. We were on Dolurrh, the realm of the dead, which is why Freya thought I was dead and stuck here. We continued into a room with a large crystal that we proceeded to break to reach the cavern below. Once we were down there, we encountered a large skeletal dragon that turned out to be an aspect of the Keeper. It was a rather strange fight. I was bit and could no longer be healed, as well as feeling the life and strength drained out of me by his mere presence. Nirra’s soul was stolen by the Keeper and her lifeless body simply collapsed on the cavern floor. The bulk of the party threw spells upon spells at him, most of which were useless. Shen disappeared, as he sometimes does, but he did not reappear right away, which worried me. He eventually did reappear, but not until several seconds later. During the entirety of the battle I did not attack a single time. I did, however, manage to active a magic siphon I bought a few years ago, when I was distraught about Tycobi’s loss. It creates a dispel magic field that affected both me and the Keeper. I could see the Keeper weaken and felt myself grow stronger again, and stronger yet when I was hit by a cure spell of Freya’s. Before I knew it, Astiel struck him down and severed the skull from the body. Aarson was rather excited about this, but saddened as the skull crumpled in his hands when he picked it up.

We rested until the seal broke. Freya found Nirra’s soul tied to a shard of crystal and took it home. While we were waiting I started fading away to ghost form. You cannot imagine the fear I felt as I saw my own arm move right through Shen. When I was simply standing around, thinking, my body began moving without my doing, toward a crystal shard much like Nirra’s. Freya told me I had to go into it upon becoming a full ghost, or she would not be able to take me home. But Nirra and I were not the only ones that were were taking to Eberron. Astiel found himself a sould to serve him, and we also happened upon Sur’kill, the party’s employer of sorts. It appears he had also died and required our assistance to return to the world of the living. Once all was said and done, we returned to our home in Sharn.

Upon our return to the only real home I have had in decades, I held back some tears. I was still a ghost, without a body, but the tears felt as real as any ever have. That night, Freya filled me on more details of what had transpired while I was away. I screamed when I learned that fr a while my dear Tycobi had also lost his soul, and sighed with relief when she told me he had it back. He was on a sabbatical now, she said. She will not tell me more, however, and I am worried why that could be. Shen is of no help to me on the matter, as he knows nothing more than that. I went to sleep that night as a ghost still, but I felt strangely at peace.

The next day Freya brought back Nirra, Sur’kill and myself after she had spent all day acquiring the diamonds required for the spells. It appears that Sur’kill and the Chamber have lost power. I do not care. I’m relieved to be where I am, alive and well. In a way I feel stronger even, more than mortal. I assume this is the feeling one gets when cheating the Keeper and I rather enjoy it.

Meanwhile, Astiel has resurrected his soul as a dwarf who, after some convincing and excellent bluffing on Astiel’s part, has agreed to serve him. The dwarf still is not used to his dwarven form and claims to have been a man of the city watch in his lifetime.

And now it is once again time to rest my new old body. I still cannot believe I was ever dead at all. When I read through this account in the morning, I think it feel like a nightmare.

Courtin' in the Kitchen

After aging a few years to fey for entertainment for the Fairy Court (and going blind to a Nymph), the PCs explore the dance hall (several giant interconnected flowers) of Fairy King Oberon. Content Not Found: Pip_’s rendered mute and _Content Not Found: Thea is blind, so the dragons sit outside the portal while the adventurers do their good deeds.

The Aberrants meet several fey, learning a few tidbits of the Fairy Region and about [[:Fairy King Oberon]], who is wearing the Thelanis seal; a fine golden necklace. After unsuccessfully attempting to bluff their way into his presence, Content Not Found: Kryatos breaks in, and tells the King the epic tale of the Tarrasque and how he’s involved with saving the world. The rest of the PCs are invited in, where they meet Oberon’s progeny, including the [[:Princess Anp]] and her heir to the throne brother.

The Content Not Found: vampiric-axiomatic-swordsage-goblin is also present, and remembers many of the PCs, vowing to kill them all some day. Today, however, he’s here to ensure the seal doesn’t break in the PCs favor. King Thelanis is cognizant about his jewelry, but seems nonchalant.

As the night progresses, Content Not Found: Freya determines the evening’s meal is poisoned, and positions everyone she likes (or almost everyone) to seats where they won’t suffer too ill of effect of black fly venom. Shen drinks excessive amounts of Yak’s Milk Brandy. The Fairy King did too, apparently, and fell dead to the poison and the seal began to prematurely slough off. [[:Vampiric Axiomatic Swordsage Goblin]] and the PCs scramble for the seal, with the PCs having a hearty edge and a Wall of Force. Freya Miracles Oberon to life, and heals the other guests of their poison.

Content Not Found: Nirra_ met another catfolk, who is a student of Content Not Found: Findelas_, a Manifest Spellshaper. Content Not Found: Kryatos began his courtship of the fairy [[:Princess Anp]]. [[:Vampiric Axiomatic Swordsage Goblin]] escaped via planeshift.

We belong in the punitentiary.

PCs vanquished a white slaad in a room with floating rocks, optical illusions, a slaad, random magical effects, and a shining sun. Slaad salad jokes ensued. A portal took them to a small grotto with a red portal and an orcwort, which unsuccessfully attempted to make them into orcwort food. The birds of paradise and magic trees would have made for a serene setting, too, if it weren’t for the bloodshed.
Backtracking, the group ended in a cylindrical chamber capped on the ceiling and floor with teleports, complete with with falling rocks, falling zombies, falling red mystical key, and falling treasure.

The colors. The colors.

Kryatos teleported into the dragon golem room, and all the PCs fought against the contraptions while the eldrich machine attempted to create a new golem. Freya pulled a green key of mystic power out of the machine, making all the arms drop limp.
The Aberrants backtracked, but wound up in a room littered with bones and tools, including a skull of a beholder. They animated into several long boneyards, which reanimated into larger undead as soon as they fell. From there,
The PCs went through the rainbow gas room, failed to pass through a red veil, but teleported from the poisonous room through a green veil and into an antechamber with statues of spellcasters and a dried up fountain.
We ended as the PCs teleported to a new destination where the sky shines in half the room and footprints float in midair next to suspended rocks.
XP
17…5737
18…4050
19…2850

To Eberron

PCs went to find Eberron seal.
Thray revealed herself to be a dragon, apparently isn’t allowed back into Argonessen.
PCs impersonated the Onyx Diamonds to bully a guard. Viren crafted a statue on Thronehold staring the PCs as the Onyx Diamonds.
Party split into two teleporting rooms. Ended mid-combat. All but Kraytos is now in one room.
That room happens to contain an magically animated machine making construct dragons with acid fire breath. The other room is airless and filled with a Prismatic Spray gas.
XP
1425…19th
2025…18th
2550…17th

Life the ever chaotic mess of my life and the time, the time comes and goes. With each plane we go to we gain new power, we lose friends, we lose bits of our souls, we lose time. The Tarasque gains more power with every seal that breaks, while we gain nominal power. In our little down time we spend trying to catch up with our acquaintances and family; we search in vane for information regarding the planes we will be traveling to and even more futile information that can help us sway the pending destruction of our world. It’s been almost half a year since we caught up with the Keelhaulers. I suppose they could all be dead, Nirra would be saddened by the loss of her companion there. Though I think she’s been moving on regardless of his life or death. They’ve been little help to us with the exception of gaining us ease of access to Xendrix. We’ve been all over, Larina popped back in briefly the unfortunate and still unclear aspect of Larina is that we are pretty sure she is dead. She may not be, but she was a soul in Duhlur, well I bound her back to her body and she left again. This only hardened Tycobi’s decision to remain on his current path.
In the last half a year we’ve been to Khyber, filled with evils and horrors that would break most men. And then we had to get help, we found out that Irian and Kythri were going to loose their power onto the universe at the same time. This required part of us to go to Irian and the other to Kythri. Being that Irian is the land of eternal day and heals those who inhabit the area I was not going there. Nira heals through negative energy like myself as well as Astiel…oh, yes Astiel. Vieran freed a man from Khyber as well, a man who had been turned to stone. The best part about Astiel, the best, made my whole day that day; he’s a StormShard who heralds to Lady Vol. Not only does he think he’s our great ancestor he is still stuck to the mentality that I should be birthing brats to tie to our name as well as Shen. Not sure how he feels that Shen has tainted our bloodline by becoming a dragon born and that he does not follow the Vol. He also carries the Mark of Death. Fantastic old man is he lots of old language and he’s having a great deal of a time understanding that his Mark has been all but wiped from the plane. Trying to get him to understand the danger that goes from him showing his mark was difficult but thankfully gramps has been coming around.
Anyway, where was I…yes the splitting of our group. We would need a good deal of help, and help we were not likely to find. This is where the chaos begins and we were not even on Kyithri yet. In no particular order our home was bombarded by a man claiming he was from Irian who needed to protect the world from the tarasque. Aarson’s father decided to stop by for a visit and then was willing to go with to another plane to help us. Two tiny wormling dragons burst through our balcony area expressing they were Sir Kills off spring, two crazy personalities they were sisters, insane little acid spitting sisters. The best part, Aarson’s father (pappa Venom for ease of speaking) was going to be accompanying me, Nira, Gramps, and Norm (the most sane of our new comers) to Kyithri. Hooray for quality time and my companion who recently lost her list of things we don’t talk about to people list. Levix, Loex, Aarson, Shen, and Vieran were going to go Irian as none of them are harmed by positive energy. Aarson was upset that he did not get to go to the Chaos plane considering his devotion to the Traveler. But papa Venom assured him all would be well.
We were hardly on Kyithri, Nira’s list of things not to talk about has been growing by the minuet. Including not telling Aarson’s father that he no longer contains a heart! Papa Venom was not super thrilled at that and hopefully I’ve swayed him from ever asking about it again. The plane itself was a blur, right until the moment when Vieran and Levix came shouting into my head, which could only mean they were on this plane and not where they should be. Levix was screaming on and on about her sister as I found them on Kyithri; they had been plane shifted and Levix could not get them back as the restraints of the spell. We waited for the seal on Kyithri to break and I moved everyone to Irian; where myself and the others were swiftly imprisoned. How they managed to move us all is beyond me, I’ve heard of spells warning and preventing teleporting into specific areas but to move and imprison people I had never. Thankfully I hardly had to take one break of Irian air and I moved us all back to our house in Sharn. With Levix still screaming in my ears I grabbed the charm that held the ability to pull Aarson to me and whispered the trigger. Aarson appeared in front of me in a moment and I was elated. I asked about the others who apparently were on the Crimson Dawn I teleported Vieran to her so he could pilot her home.
I realized then that something was not right with Aarson, he began dumping papers everywhere and muttering to me about how they held the key to the universe and he was going to unlock that secret. Levix tried to explain how this behavior had come about, but the gist of it was going to be easily dismissed by destroying whatever these papers were. And that’s exactly what I did. Aarson was temporarily devastated but he’ll recover.
The newest event was our move to the Upper Plato; and another unfortunate run in with House Tarkan. I am so sick of that blasted woman and her dying need to have all the Abberants of Eberron having the glory of a house. We did find out who was behind the wasting disease that has been slowly eating away at the people in Sharn, turns out the woman has some creepy friends. I heard about her plot from one of my followers who was using their divine power to speak to me. I told the person not to do anything with House Tarkan and went to the gala event that I had gleaned from the individual. Sure enough she showed up and threatened to destroy everyone if they did not give status to those with the Abberant Mark. We tried to stop her and calm the crowd but the damage was done. For Abberants like myself and Aarson it’s nearly impossible for us to hid our marks, mine covers nearly my entire body. We left shortly after and I swear I will be murdering that cursed woman in her sleep. This dampened the move to our new home because the locals were not keen on a house full of Abberants moving into such a high class neighborhood. We forced our way into a party Nirra had found out about and did our best to be the most law biding courteous people in order to restore a bit of trust. I doubt it did much good, but I did get the grand pleasure of dancing with my whorish noble and I do hope that helped our cause. We awoke in the morning to find graffiti of an Abberant Mark on our house; so I used my magic to blend the mark into the walls and made it shift slightly like my mark does and then placed a spell to keep it permanently in place. Everyone may as well get used to us.

Oh the time, it goes by so fast, we’ve been all over the multiverse lately and it has been months and months since I’ve had a moment to write. Where to begin, we clearly made it across the plane of ice some of us a little more scared then others. Then I decided it was time to gather my Arcanist robes; they were in Thronehold below the castle there. Thronehold was a mess, guards everywhere the castle was guarded heavily. Anyway, once we got inside the whole place was a mess of plants and terrible. The plants of course, were deadly, as most plants are. It turned out we were inside some nasty worm monster thing that had plant innards. There was burst of fire that almost killed me and would have, had Nira not covered me with herself. Vieran however, was not as lucky, but lovely me and my ability to raise fixed that little problem. We got stuck in some force bubbles that rolled down into the gullet of the beast; where we were assaulted further by some goons and the guy wearing my robes. Yes, my robes, I saw them in my future so clearly they were mine. During the battle for my robes, Larina got terribly lethargic and could hardly fight; and, Porthos died. Now, Porthos is a member of our party and members of our party protect one another. Since Porthos found it so keen to pass judgment on me for coming back from the dead in the instance where the inevitable tried to kill me; I found it so keen as to not raise him. I did not interfere with his return, but simply let Vieran do it.
After all that work I had obtained my robes! And the power that they brought me and continue to bring me is vast; I now have a church with over 100 followers…I should probably convert them to the Blood of the Vol now that I follow that…anyway. When we got back to Sharn it was right around Larina’s birthday, so we all headed out to eat. Little did we know that Sir Kill was planning on inviting himself to the evenings events. Larina was pretty irritated it seemed; she really has no stomach for dragons, or really anyone. Well turns out Sir Kill had brought a Halfling woman named Thrae to join our party and help us out with our upcoming tasks. We all took this really well…except Larina who seemed to be drinking a quite deal more then usual; but when something comes from Sir Kill like this, we generally have a better time accepting it. Tycobi seemed excited at the prospect of a woman his size, and on the way home Larina had to basically be carried by Shen the whole way home. Once we arrived home Nira put Larina to bed and we told Thrae to sleep in Nira’s loft with her for the time being; just as everyone was getting settled in there was a knock at the door. Nira, as usual, was the first to the door followed by Aarson; Nira shrieked at the undead standing at our door, Aarson just stared. Shen and I asked at the same time who was at the door, as we approached we came upon Kratos our old wand duelist companion whom we had to leave for death. And now we knew, it really had come to his death. Before us stood a Bodak, with Kratos face and voice; he explained his master wanted us to follow him to the plane of Mabar. This was where we needed to go next anyway, but somehow knowing that something was waiting for us there did not ease the soul. We told bodak Kratos to wait outside and we’d leave with him in the morning; we filled in the other party members as to who this odd individual was, and the way he came about his circumstances.
We left for Mabar the next day, which the weak point happens to be within the Eldeen Reaches, which meant that it was time for a visit with Aarson’s dad. The yelling old Elf who lives alone in the woods, hooray! This was a great experience for him as we all jumped from the Airship which Vieran left over his house. Larina was not impressed with him, but really who is. After a rather short stay, thankfully for all of us, we headed off to find the portal entrance. Kratos seemed to know where he was going to he directed the airship, a few days in we found the rotting section of forest. Lucky for us we dropped right on top of a ceremony being run by a Druid and his followers…they were not to happy. But they had a sphere of inhalation! I had never seen an actual sphere! There was a gaping hole in the ground and the sphere was at the center above the hole. The followers tried to stop us from their ceremony, which lead to a very short battle as Larina decided to throw herself down the hole. My amazingly noble brother threw himself after her; she was being mind controlled but common it’s not like he could actually fly with her! The Druid I was trying to battle for control over the sphere some how managed to turn me into stone; that the Six that Vieran could fix that. The hole seemed to be the entrance to Mabar so everyone was jumping after Shen and Larina. I tried in vane one last time to grab hold of the sphere with my mind, but alas I failed and fell swiftly after my companions.
Vieran has this amazing ability to slow fall all of us, and we just let it go until we saw what was down this terribly deep dark hole. I heard Larina scream and Shen strain to keep them from hitting the bottom, a loud thick splash followed. Followed by another splash, Nira screams, a loud splash, Aarson grumbling, Tycobi and Thrae bickering, then splash, I activated my boots of fly and Vieran kicked on his hover board. At the bottom of the hole was a solid pool of blood and my companions were covered in it. Tycobi promptly threw up in the mess and with no other viable options; Kratos dove under the blood pool. Shen followed as well as the rest of the party and we surfaced in a room presumably on the plane of Mabar. I had just gotten this bowl from Sir Kill, it’s a relic that tells me where the seals are once we are on the plane. This was my first run using the thing and a faint line pointed where we should head. The bowl worked well, I still think for a Dragon Profit like myself that the bowl is lame. Kratos was leading us in the same direction as my bowl so we had no reason to fight with him yet. We finally made it to this huge room where a hooded individual awaited; he thanked Kratos for bringing us here and welcomed us. His welcome seemed short lived however as he summoned a wraith that Aarson, Shen and I had fought before. The wraith did not attack us thankfully, but the man spoke to me and Nira about our souls being bound to items. Apparently Lady Vol of the Blood of the Vol was the individual who pulled us back from Duhlur when we fell last. The man explained that Lady Vol wanted me to become a Cleric of hers and she would reverse the effects of the curse we were currently under. I have always thought the Blood of the Vol itself was interesting, and the invitation from the Lady herself could not be turned down. I renounced the Dark Six and vowed to serve the Blood of the Vol; Nira out of no where vowed to follow me…like a Deity…which is odd but I suppose I’ll get used to it. In addition to my new Deity, I got to keep Kratos, just like he was before the Bodak got a hold of him. We diplomatically solved a problem for once, what are the odds?
We headed back to Sharn, which was an amusing trip. Larina once again is irritated by people; Kratos is somewhat of a promiscuous individual and when he takes a liking to someone look out. Well it happened to be Nira, frankly I think the girl should live a little. Who goes from no parents to finding an orphan and just blowing off the fun in life? Well regardless the bickering and complaining was hilarious and the fact that Tycobi was spending more and more time with Thrae was making this trip even better. As well on this trip we discovered that Thrae was actually a dragon, she had mentioned it before but sometimes you hear what a Halfling says, but you don’t “hear” them. This was made apparent after her and Tycobi spent a good deal of time giggling at the edge of the ship. They climbed up on the rail and threw themselves off, which was quite a heart stopper if I do say so myself. Larina screamed bloody loud an ran to the rail; Vieran slowed the ship and Aarson and Shen ran to the back of the ship. A dragon cry rang out through the air, causing Larina to freak out further. I told her that was a fairly small cry as Tycobi on the back of Thrae flew across the bow of the ship. After a small joy ride they landed where they were promptly chided for an hour by Larina. Thankfully they both have good spirits and just giggled.
When we finally returned to Sharn I got Tycobi a pipe for his birthday I believe was the occasion and him Aarson, and I all smoked out on our balcony. This seemed to have sent Larina over the edge and she drug my brother out for a night of drinking. Soon after we headed back to Thronehold, apparently that is where the gateway to the plane of Eberron was going to be. We tried to convince the guards to let us pass, but they would not; then Nira convinced them we were the Onyx Diamonds and that worked…which was just insane. This plane seemed pretty straight forward; until all the portals. We split our group up on accident, and then it was a fight through rooms of all manor of crazy. Through different portals until we all arrived at one room. Where we promptly set off a whole mess of traps for Nira to disable; a pit fiend we had befriended earlier showed up and we had to shift him back to the room we left him at. Nira jumped allover this large machine flipping levers, throwing daggers into cracks, breaking knobs. Finally the machine quit its tirade on us and I pulled a green crystal out of it; this caused the entire machine to crack and break. We had stumbled upon the seal, the power slid over us all as we relaxed and shifted back to our plane.
We hit up Sarlona on our way home, because ever since our first visit Aarson has not gotten the living breastplate out of his head. So we are going to settle this, apparently, either he gets it or we die. Thankfully, Nira is all manor of tricky and she fooled them with a cast of the breastplate. So now my beloved has an insane entity living with him, hooray!
I swear I need to write more often this is a crazy journal entry; shall someone happen upon it someday they’ll have to do an awful lot of work to figure out what I’m talking about. Oh well, their future problem not mine. We finally made it back to Sharn and decided to take a bit of a long stay to rest up for the next few planes. This worked well as it was my and Shen’s birthdays; it is weird to be spending so many birthdays together again after all the time apart, but it is nice. My dear Aarson gave me the most treasured gift; his heart, literally, he removed his heart and placed it into a closely guarded box and replaced his heart with a beautiful obsidian and gold heart. Now I know most girls would be grossed out by such a raw display of affection, but how perfect. And then there is Shen’s special birthday gift; it has been apparent to me for some time that my brother being the over chivalrous type would never make the moves onto a woman. It is also clear that Larina has affections on some level for my brother; though they both seem to try and hide it. Well, finally a woman who takes charge has come into my brother’s life and hopefully has made some form of a man out of him. Larina went in the room, and did not come back out; I’d take that as a success. Sadly the opportunity to embarrass him was lost because he’s all manors of different kinds of creature which leaves little room for blushing. Damn. Not only did Larina not sleep in her bed that night, but Tycobi and Thrae also looked to have spent the night together; good thing Larina was too occupied to notice!
We then ventured off into the Fairy Court; which was an insane place that Nira is in love with. Time is all messed up here, and Thrae was instantly blinded when we entered the realm; we had to leave her outside with Pip. We found the fairy king however, who was nice enough to invite us to his table. Though a good majority of the food was poisoned, I made sure my companions did not eat any of the tainted food, and took a tainted plate for myself. Well turns out that wasn’t a crazy custom of the fairy court, someone was trying to kill the king. I cast Miracle to bring the king back and took a great deal of time to return everyone else to themselves. We’re pretty sure the son was behind this; but Nira will deal with him another day. It was during this trip that Kratos found a new friend, the fairy king’s daughter. Oh lord. Now I have Kratos wanting to go to and from this plane; thankfully she decided to just come with us later.
When we arrived home we arrived to a letter from Matron Tara; she was getting married. Sweet Vol you’ve got to be kidding me, we’re all naturally suspicious so we had to go meet this guy. We’re not impressed, but Tara seems happy so we helped pay for her wedding and wished her the best. It was around this trip home that Larina started looking into the situations surrounding Valinar. There have been a lot of weird things going on throughout the world since the seals started breaking. It has been almost unbearably hot in Sharn and across Breland; weird disease holds people and they are difficult to over come. The plane of fire went very smoothly…with the exception that I happened to bring all of our possessions to the plane of fire. Yes, I did. I sent them back before I ruined my followers and the Crimson Dawn. The plane of battle was dull, we didn’t even have to fight, well Shen, Aarson, Kratos, and Veiran fought.
This is where the story sort of does a turn about; we had gotten back from the plane of battle, Larina was a bit more distant then usual stating worry over the fighting in Valinar. She never says much about it, and all she’s told us is that she has lost everyone she has ever been with. Tycobi even for years was lost from her, so when one wakes up to a note stating they have run off to go help some “friends” in Valinar one becomes suspicious. Tycobi has all but shut down; Nira, Thrae, and I have tried to keep his spirits up but the heartache is clear. And now we’re headed to Dulhur, the place of nightmares; should bode well for the broken spirit. Tycobi has asked me to help him change his Paladin ways he no longer feels the need to quest for good. I have agreed, I feel a change will be good for him; and with me along to guide him, what could go wrong.
A lot could go wrong; Dulhur so far has been amazingly terrible, but amazing. We no more then go to the plane and we were greeted by a creep jester who was pulling souls along. He happened to have the other artifact that I have been searching for; the Deck of Many things. The deck is full of many troubles and evils; but riches and power as well. I was offered a draw as well as the rest of the group; I chose to draw two cards. My first draw was the Sun card, power surged like lighting through my body; I felt smarter and more intoned to my magic, I also gained a beautiful helm. My second card was Ruin, which destroyed all my non magical possessions; my parent’s dagger and material component pouch along with other sentimental items were gone forever. Tycobi drew next, he drew the Fool; which sucked a good deal of life from him and forced him to draw again. He also drew Ruin, and his last draw was The Void; Tycobi’s eyes went dark he stilled. His soul was gone from his body, trapped who knows where. Nira did not fair much better on her draws and she had to fight a dread wraith; Kratos had lost all of his magical possessions and chose to help Nira fight the wraith so he had to as well. Once again his random kindness meant his doom; and this time there will be no coming back for him. Aarson drew as well his results seemed less terrible; and we got Shen to draw once, of course he got a magical item for his trouble. The jester laughed at the good and misfortune that had become us all. We shall continue on ward, after I send Tycobi back to the Crimson Dawn.

Rhaan 9th
We left Sharn for the edge of Frostfell which we found on Rhaan 19th well this plane is going to be harsh. Nira and Tycobi found two penguins and then caught them, well Nira caught them Tycobi stole one that she was letting go. We had hardly broken into the plane when we came across…ourselves. Of course it was not actually us but very close replicas, thankfully they did not seem to know our weaknesses. They were made of ice and snow, but they had the same abilities as we did. It seemed like everyone went after themselves and thankfully we weren’t all made of ice, (who was made of ice?). To make this more interesting we ended up fighting ourselves on a frozen airship, granted, the airship did get us up the mountain of ice before us. Well thankfully we were evenly matched for the few of us we had to fight and we jumped off the airship onto a ledge on the mountain. There was a cave where we had thought about going into and trying to climb up from the inside. Well, that’s no fun. So Porthos cast a spell and created a 3ft disk of force, and Vieran made a great net and we draped it over the disk and we all held on with Aarson sitting on the disk. Vieran had the fly spell active so he flew with Porthos holding onto him until his spell started to wane, and then Shen took over flying. We kept the forming ice off by breaking it, Nira and Vieran are very apt to climbing around rigging on ships so they cleared a lot of ice from the bottom while Tycobi and I cleared away the top. Well we made it pretty far, before the wind and then some ice men happened to attack us from the side of the mountain. They realized the weak point in our plan and forced Porthos away from the edge of the mountain, instantly our disk vanished and we began to fall. Tycobi and I were tied into the net. I had handed off our immovable rod to Porthos, who locked it into place and held on, Vieran flew up and looped the net over the rod. The icy conditions cause the net to slide to the very end of the rod, I quickly activated my boots of fly and pulled back as hard as I could on the net. Thankfully Shen and Aarson got rid of the ice men quickly and we swung the net and everyone attached to the closest cave opening. We hurried inside and began the daunting walk up the inside of the ice mountain. To my surprise the ice and snow was pretty easy to walk on, and you could see almost the entire way up the mountain. It was not as windy inside, but still extremely cold, my hair was frozen and my eyes had to fight to stay open. Nira and I noticed some weird looking ice that was sliding along the ceiling, you know, anytime something looks weird it is probably going to try and kill us, you think I’d realize that by now. Sure enough the weird ice was some what like a gelatinous cube, started to attack. Not that those were enough, a frost giant also decided to lumber into the mix. Shen was sticking close to me fighting the cubes, but I told him to go fight the giant, since there was really nothing I could do about that. Nira shot over cross from Shen and they began to assault the creature. Porthos, Tycobi, and I all we’re doing our best to keep the cubes…occupied so to speak, Porthos was casting a lot of spells and hitting all of the creatures. Tycobi and I…not as affective. In fact so not affective that as soon as I went to cast my spells, the ice cube moved into my space and froze me solid. What I did learn from this, I can cast my dragon mark spells without the use of my hands or voice! BOOM! Awesome. Porthos freed me from the ice cube but I fell to the ground because of the cold. I heard the frost giant speak to Nira and Shen, my stomach lurched, he was trying to control them…and he was probably going to succeed. It is a known fact that my brother, has about the worst mental strength ever, and while Nira is better…she is easily convincible. To my surprise, Shen shook off the heavy tone and slashed deep into the giant. But Nira, Nira stopped with a glossy look in her eye. Feeling particularly useless I screamed into my ring of communication that she damn well better knock it off and attack that frost giant or so help me I would kill her myself. And wouldn’t you know, it worked, Nira shook her head looked worried and confused and attacked the giant quickly. Well my shouts worked…but only for a moment and no sooner then Nira attacked the gloss fell back across her eyes. Thankfully Shen and Porthos quickly finished the rest of the ice cubes and frost giant off, Nira snapped out of her mental fixation and tried to light me on fire to free me. Even my not so loveable dragon pip was lying on my chest to free me.
Eventually the affects of the ice cube wore off and we continued on our way, ahead of us we could see a blue snow. Porthos and I studied it for a bit and figured out that it was snow, just antimagic snow. In short all the protections Porthos had on were going to go away, the snow didn’t affect items though. Once we made it though the snow the ice wind picked up again, slashing our faces. And that was about the time we noticed we were standing on a massive face, well the face of a gigantic worm. But the air here was thick like clouds and we had to bounce around to fight the creature. For once a battle that went in our favor though! We finished off the worm rather quickly and settled in to wait for the seal to finish breaking. I could feel the cold power weaving its way through my veins, over my dragon mark and across my constellations. Yeah, I said constellations, and I mean constellations, they look like real dragon marks, blue and sparkling. Once the energy seemed to fade from my veins I grabbed everyone and planeshifted us back to our regular realm.

Barrakas 16th
Sharn! We made it home, once we docked our airship I teleported everyone back to our home. We gave Tycobi and Larina the room Vieran uses on occasion. It was good to be home, back to my bed and my furniture. Kane an Abel liked Tycobi and we once again have a full house full of misfits. I like it this way though.
Vieran bought his airship from House Lynair and called us all down to the Broken Anvil to have drinks and help see who would be best for his ship. While we were there we caught up with Matron Tara who has fierce competition and was not doing well. We paid her to shut down for the night and have dinner with us, after a good deal of arguing. Nira snuck up on Vieran’s new recruits, he did eventually pick one though, a Half-Elf woman named Kuir.
We knew we needed to go to the plane of Ice, but we had no idea where that portal would be. I sent other Aarson a message. He replied back rather quickly, wanting to meet us at Nixies Grace tonight, he may know where the place of Ice is, apparently his crew broke up? So tomorrow we will be meeting up with him, guess we will see what they have been doing while we have been fighting.
Well the Keel Haulers split up, but just so they could gather more information I guess. Other Aarson left with the Half Orc to come back to Sharn, the rest of the group is running around Xendrik now looking for a primal soul. I dunno other Aarson needs to go to Thrane to talk to some queen about getting approval to talk to some giants which might help us in the end. So we’ll see. All in all a uneventful night, Nira was to busy flirting with other Aarson, so the rest of us left them to have some alone time. Aarson and I went on a walk with Kane, Abel, Miranda, and Pip…wow, we have a lot of animals in our house. I think this is a little insane but, I mean, we adventure for a living so I guess it goes with the territory.
During our stay home we sent Nira and Tycobi to go break the news to Porthos’ wife that he was dead. Apparently it was quite the spectacle, Tycobi played his hurdy gurdy and Nira told of the news. She was heart broken apparently. And that left us with a still some what rotting Porthos, I decided on the way back that I could not raise Porthos again. He had abandoned me saying that my raising and being raised was unnatural, and he left us alone to fight the inevitable. After that I raised him, but the more I think about it the more I realized that if his stance was it was unnatural then someone else could raise him. Well luckily for him Vieran learned how to raise people (heck lucky for me too) so Vieran took care of the task.

Barrakas 1st
We were going to head home but I had things being made in the city we landed in so we had to stop by there. I got Shen and Aarson both bracelets of friendship which had a small charm attuned to me. So they can pull the charm off and I will be brought to their side.

Lharvion 22nd
We bummed around the city getting people used to us, they have no homeless here it is sort of creepy. And we finally got into see the elders at the House of Light (They are lawful sun hippies basically) Head priest Yahli helped us get the information we needed from a few different artifacts. We had seen a half-dragon half-elf who was named Ulhar, well we saw her in the temple later that day, having a fight over stolen things, with the woman from the town. We all chased after them and once I finally caught up with the woman who has been trying to kill us on a number of occasions I disintegrated her. We got Ulhar to stop fighting back and we returned the goods to the temple. They had taken an armor called, living armor, Aarson wanted to take it so badly, but he did manage to give it back to the priests. They let us leave through their giant crystal city top so it was easier to get on the airship. Well that was going to be no problem…except that a Ancient Blue dragon was perched on Vieran’s ship. Vieran called his ship over to us and the Blue dragon did not appear to be hostile towards us. Apparently some dragons do not like us as part of the Chamber, he did not really care. He just wanted to see who the tiny humans were. Larina and Tycobi were pretty freaked out by the dragon, though Shen, Aarson, and I have had enough dealings with them that we basically got over it quickly. He was a storm guardian, so thankfully he did not bring any foul weather.

Lharvion 8th
We made it to this city called Shembola, it is a very well guarded city and I do not recommend going there for a vacation. It is underground and they have these crystal plant rocks that glow everywhere. Well we shopped around and we needed to get information from the elders of here apparently. We ate dinner at a great place called the Black Anchor. Aarson drug Shen an I up to the airship later that day to show us what he made for us, two beautiful chairs (Shens missing a cheek of course!) They can create hoar frost to keep you cool. Shen also had me specialty made a House StormShard signet ring!!

Nymm 20th
We camped in that meadow for a few days, I fixed the Halfling from Aarson’s overly hasty spell. Viren messaged me, which was exciting news, we had missed our airship captain. I told Viren that I would let my senses down so he could scry where we were and that he should cloak his ship since there were dragons on Sarlona. Well he did not understand the cloaking but he did figure out where we were at. Just in time too, I don’t recall what we were fighting but it took Larina’s pinky finger. And as Shen was trying to save Larina’s finger and the rest of us were leaving, it took Shen’s left butt cheek! Oh it is been hilarious ever sense! Aarson keeps making great jokes.

Nymm 16th
We got back to the nice peaceful meadow that was between the plane of law an chaos. I had just stepped off the stairs onto the grass when a Halfling dressed in impressive armor for such a little guy, and wielding a hammer that was far to large for him screamed “There it is!!” And then he ran at me, I had a moment to notice a Sovereign Host symbol etched into his armor, as I braced myself for his blow. Well that little guy could really wield that hammer, and I fell back into Aarson. Shen drew his sword and Aarson stepped forward and threw a spell into the Halfling, who fell to his knees under the weight of his armor and weapon. Aarson had removed his strength, my head was spinning but he hadn’t really hurt me badly. He had tried to smite me, imagine that…in all the years, that has never happened. Larina had a dazed look on her face, “Tycobi!?” the Halfling looked behind him and with whatever remaining strength he had threw himself into Larina’s arms. “What is going on please!?” I was frustrated and sore. Well between Halfling tears and giggles this little guys name was Tycobi, Larina had taken care of him since he was little but he was taken from her about a decade ago. As for why he was here, apparently he had been tracing my “evil” for days and now he found it and as a Paladin of the Sovereign Host he had to strike me down. Wow, what a day. I need a drink.

Nymm 14th
Elina is back! She had been following us, she’s such a nice person to have around…even if we do follow different pantheons. Well the plane of law rocks. For me that is, everyone else is having a really had time adapting. We fought a frost worm, formians are very good at mind controlling people and thankfully none of us got mind controlled during this visit. Shen and Aarson however managed to get themselves shifted back to our home plane. Once this happens with the spell, you cannot get back to the plane which you were shifted from until 24 hours have passed. Shen however used his wish card to pull himself an Aarson back to the battle. And because he pushed a little hard on the card he is now native to the Lawful plane. Which is pretty hilarious if you ask me. Over the entire trip to the plane of Law was frustrating, we did however manage to free a Elf woman named Larina, very violent one it is clear she has seen to much war. Though, Aarson manages along nicely and he never fought in the war…what a thought. Regardless, she came with us and helped fight all of the formians we came up against.
We tried to be diplomatic towards the formian queen, but she would have none of it and sadly I fear we missed the seal breaking. We only had a short period of time to get in and out of the plane an we played it safe by leaving after “negotiations” fell through.

Nymm 13th
We found a guide, a woman named Mollard’Fai and for pretty cheap too, since no one ever seems to know what they are getting into with us. We headed out that morning, we did not make it far however before both Nira and I passed into the great land of Duhler. Only this time, I was brought back as well as Nira. I also remembered things this time, there were three wispy shapes and a skull a small skull rock with my blood on it. Nira saw the same things too, she however had a jawbone. Apparently the shapes said this was important and that’s why I got to come back, but that I better not screw up. Well now both Nira and I cannot be affected by heal spells and have to have negative energy to heal our wounds. Upon further study of the skull, I figured out that it was a phylactery, damn it.
Not long after everything started to get really odd. Things floated up that shouldn’t, it snowed but upwards, and we suddenly fell into the future. Which sucks by the way, I suppose a smart person would not write down what happens in the future, you know, incase someone tries to change things. Though, the one epic thing I did find out is the robes I want, the robes I would willingly throw my armor away for are hidden under the throne of Galipher. I will be going there as soon as time allows, I have to have those robes.

Nymm 12th
We got to the harbor the next day and found the ship, the captain was none other then Sig from our previous travels. Apparently he had a falling out with House Lynair, so now he smuggles stuff all over. Not going to lie, Sig’s not really all that ruff; it was sort of hilarious to see. So Sig let us ride on deck as the crew, he fired some people to make room for us. I made the weather beautiful for the whole trip which cut the trip down to about two months instead of three. We began approaching the bay in Sarlona and the weather got worse and began closing in specifically on my nice patch of weather. Suddenly I felt something trying to over power my spell, Nira said she saw a Kraken…I didn’t but I never see anything really, even so I gathered my will and forced whatever it was back. We sailed on smoothly into the cavern, once inside our ship stopped as a serpent or well, maybe two serpents demanded that we answer a riddle or die. “The person who makes it sells it. The person who buys it never uses it. The person who uses it doesn’t know they are.” After some mulling Porthos said calmly, “a coffin,” we all agreed that it was a great answer and it was correct. We didn’t die! We finally made it to Debarina, we did have to wait for Shen and Aarson to finish unloading stuff from the ship. I talked to Sig to try an arrange passage back, and he said he’d be in town for about three weeks.
Aarson got me a new pipe for my birthday, it is carved to look like a blue dragon and it puffs blue smoke and makes snow. Shen got me an infinite scroll case, I had to make Shens gift still…well have someone else make it. We were not in this town long and we headed into one of the taverns to find a guide. While there we ran into the woman from just outside the city where the piece of space rock fell. We chased after her but alas she got away once more.

Dravago 8th
In the morning Aarson, Nira, and I saw Shen, Porthos, and Rosie off at the train, once they were gone I grabbed hold of Aarson and Nira and we teleported home. Kane and Abel were happy to see Aarson, I was happy to be in my own bed. Aarson, Nira, and I spent the next few days shopping; somehow Aarson found a little old lady who made glamour armor, which she would apply multiple outfits too! I about died, not only did it look like cloths, it felt like cloths, and sounded like cloths! Well the woman drug Aarson into the dressing room and basically tore his armor and clothing off. It was quite entertaining and she was all hands getting his measurements. When she was done we made our way back home, Aarson armor less and scarred, and me laughing the whole way at him. Finally Shen, Porthos, and Nira showed up and we spent a good deal of time waiting for our new equipment and clothing to be crafted. Lots of laying around and throwing spells at each other. Shen, Nira, and I also got the glamour armor. I have a purple and black outfit for everyday and a red, black, and silver dress for more important or formal affairs. I finally found a rod I had been looking for as well! I went home and pulled out my card that had a wish locked in it, I wished for 50,000 worth in platinum and it smashed into my bed. I took it and ran back to the shop, 75k later I am the proud owner of a quicken rod! Man I’ve been saving for so long I feel poor..well…poorer.
We spent a good deal of time at the church of the North Winds, with our old friend Bo’Dok. Apparently in my absence house D’Ennith came and told Bo’Dok that I should stop advertising my services for mercenaries, we must be a pretty big deal! I got to heal a popular guy within Sharn, he couldn’t go to a normal house because they would run straight to the Sharn Inquisitor.
The Keel Haulers messaged Nira and wanted us t omeet him at the Delicate Lobster in the Upper Mephis Plato for dinner. I guess some people think that the Tarasque is like a reset button for the world. They had a good deal of information and some leads on where we could find the portals. The Keel Haulers were headed to the Demon Wastes to talk to the Barbarians. Other Aarson asked Nira if he could take her out again, and I told her I was going to scry her while she was out. He took her to a beautiful place with a large waterfall at the hilt of the Dagger river. I forgot to mention a small adventuring group that we ran into while we were in New Cyre. Nira broke into their room after they had gone to sleep and fixed a Tiefling girls necklace and kept the broken chain so now we can scry them. The girls name is Cloey, sadly when I scryed them this time they were sleeping, though Cloey was pretty beat up. They were however going into the Mornlands.
So once we got our armor back we went to see Lady Valeria of house Tarken. She had some information she needed from Cyre, well lucky for her we were going to go there anyway. So we took the job, only snag…she wanted us to go by boat, a two month or more trip, locked inside crates! After a huge banter about her intelligence level, we told her we would get back to her. We talked at home and decided to send Nira to see how the captain would feel about having human cargo. Nira ran off, I went and slumped into my chair with Pip and stared at the fire. What a idiotic woman, really! Pip flew up and perched on the mantel and hissed at everyone, Aarson threw him a piece of meat and we all settled in. A good while later, as I was good and relaxed, Nira burst into my head; “FREYA He said…” I cut her yelling off and told her to just come home and tell me. So turns out he was fine with us and if we showed usefulness and were deemed “safe” we could even wander about the ship. So we told Lady Valeria that we would do the job and her stupid box idea.

Eyre 1st
Morning came swiftly and we trudged down to grab food and wait for Erzul. We headed out towards the gray mist, part of me would love to wander out and see what I could find. Erzul informed us of the cavern we were going to, it was shaped like a cat. Nira was overjoyed; well it took almost the whole day to get to the caves but we finally made it. And of course there is a waterfall and lake in front of the cave, so Aarson swam through with a rope and pulled me behind. They did the same with Nira, shortly after Nira surfaced my head filled with shouts from Shen, a large serpent creature had sprung forth and began attaching Porthos, Shen, and ErzulI sat inside the wet cave dripping wet and helpless as usual. Nira was pretty irritated that she had to miss out on a fight. So we sat, waiting, listening to the shouts and clangs echo inside my head. Finally it got quite and Shen and the others made their way through the underwater tunnel. We pressed into the cave, Nira darting from spot to spot looking for traps. It is rather nice not to have to walk into traps blindly…as often.
We made our way deeper into the cave and found some tracks that looked almost like flat slides. As we continued we turned down a hallway and were making our way when Nira passed under a hole in the ceiling, as she did a large blob like creature fell past her. She jumped out of the way and the whole hall seemed to spin and move about. It was quite the spectacle, everyone jumped to attack, but they all kept missing. I had enough, I walked up to the mass and disintegrated it with one touch. Nira lunged into the remaining space and looked disgruntled at me. The world stopped spinning finally and Porthos decided that going up the tunnel was the best plan, he found a trap door at the top. Nira followed and got the door open, she went in and the door shut behind her. She reopened the door and we all slowly made our way up. There were more of the flat slide like tracks here, but we pressed onward. We started down a hall and found a small room, which had the coolest table I’ve ever seen! It had grooves carved in a spiral pattern, you could put marbles on the edges and they followed the track down. Nira ran into the room and did just that. After she was satisfied she ran off down the hall; we all turned to follow but suddenly could not. Four wormy looking people came up and I really wanted to keep walking in front of this room. So, I did. I noticed Shen, Aarson, Porthos, and (ladies name) were too, I yelled for Nira to stay in the other area. There was a good deal of complaining at that, but thankfully she stayed put. I knew that Shen and Aarson would not behave this way, in a panic I tried to remove this spell from the group. Sadly I failed and we all continued to walk about in front of this spell. Porthos, Erzul, and Rosie vanished, my blood boiled at Porthos untimely disappearance once again. Well thankfully, Shen and Aarson still had enough sense to keep attacking the worms. The time drew on and on until Shen and Aarson finally killed the worms.
After the mind jack wore off we hurried through the rest of the cave; we ran into a creepy man wearing a full white mask. He was leaking all sorts of bugs, worms, and leeches, gross. Anyway, after a crappy game of questions he was like get out…so we left.
Once we got back to town we ate and discussed what we should do about this guy; well for once I did not need to kill someone and everyone else wanted to! So we went back the next day and this leechy guy was hiding in a pool! He put leeches on Aarson! Yuck! Bugs seriously, so gross! Well it actually didn’t take that long to kill him…it was just so gross! Once that was taken care of we decided that this guy was the one causing the issues, and posing as the Emerald Claw. We took whatever the man had and on the way back to town Erzul wanted to know if she was getting a cut, I thought my jaw was going to fall off. After a good deal of complaining we gave her a small share. At dinner that night Shen’s prince Oargev Ir’Wynarn came and ate with us. He wanted to hear all our stories and all about the problems and asked if we wanted to go into the Mourn Lands with him. We explained we were already betrothed to another adventure at the moment but perhaps another time.

Therendor 27th
Well the next morning we were slotted to leave on a lighting rail for New Cyre, well I didn’t want to take the lighting rail. I have magic, and I know magic powers the rails, but…why depend on something when you can do it yourself. Besides I’m still a little leery of that crazy dream I had. Regardless, Nira and Aarson both were fine to teleport; I even got a map out of Lady Valeria so it would be safer and easier. But I couldn’t bring Rosy. So, Shen and Porthos boarded the rail for their three day journey; Nira, Aarson, and myself saw them off at the dock and went home. We went out to dinner that evening and just had a good quiet evening. The next morning we figured we could teleport to New Cyre. So we did, found a really nice little inn called the Golden Dragon Inn, we rented rooms and stayed quiet until the next day.
Surprisingly enough, Shen and Porthos arrived on site no harm to them, though Shen made a “friend”. Apparently he’s the prince or duke or something of New Cyre and Shen shared stories of fighting and adventuring with him, so the man took a liking to him. Now Porthos on the other hand, refused to talk to the man, and would not tell him his name. He has connections somewhere though because as he walked away he said goodbye Shen & Porthos. You should have seen Porthos’ face! Priceless, anyway, we brought them back to the inn and we began looking for Erzul. We found ourselves at a great tavern; it had a lot of games for adventurers of all sorts. I played a game with a wand and won myself 250 Galifers. Nira disabled some pretty amazing looking locks, but then came the bear wrestling. Of course Shen an Aarson had to compete. There was a lady who was fighting the bear as well, she did amazing. Aarson beat Shen, I hit Shen because I bet on him. Well it turns out she was the lady we were looking for, so we settled in to buy her a drink and chat her up.
Erzul was working to destroy the emerald claw, who apparently had been causing quite the stir. People would go missing but being so close to the Mourn Lands people just went off sometimes and never came back. We agreed to go out in the morning with some information that Erzul had. We hung around the tavern a bit longer and I asked Porthos why he kept talking to all the sad people? Something about the best stories or something I didn’t fully understand.

Therendor 26th
We got home and Kane and Abel were very happy to see Aarson, Nira launched up to her loft while the rest of us just went to our rooms. The next morning a letter arrived from House Sivis, addressed to well Shen, Aarson, Freya, Mal, and Kratos. I opened the letter and it was from the people within House Tarkenen, a weak “house” as much as my “house” is a house. These people have been following us, and I know exactly who they were tracking. My loveable brother Shen doesn’t really have the mental resistance that I do. The letter went on to read that there was some manor of urgency and they needed assistance. I messaged the woman back. Mal is no longer with us, Kratos is probably dead. Stop stalking us, we’ll meet you tomorrow afternoon at the same place. A house Freya service.
Both Nira and Porthos were very excited to go meet these people, despite my claims of them being nosy and vindictive. Regardless the next day we all headed down to the little book store where we first met Lady Valeria and her partner Sir Rakel. It was a long walk, an a particularly rainy day, this was not improving my mood on the situation. However, it was nice to be home again, I am growing more and more fond of having a place to come home to. I haven’t had a single place to come home to for so long. We arrived at the book store, we saw Lady Valeria standing at the book case, when suddenly a paper construct appeared. Papers flew everywhere slashing everyone and knocking things about. It was made out of scrolls and magic, we figured it was summoned by a litch. Now, as soon as the thing shows up Porthos studies it and leaves! He leaves, backs out the door and runs. Shen an Aarson went after the beast as it ran past Lady Valeria. Once to the end of the book case the beast turned himself invisible, and cast this amazing spell! I know, I shouldn’t say a spell was amazing when it is being used against me but I cannot help it! It was a sphere of ultimate destruction. A tiny sphere of annihilation! My idiot brother however felt it was necessary to go stand in front of it, this thing will suck in any material that it touches and it is lost forever. Well at least he did not get lost forever. Lady Valeria ran towards me, I was still standing at the door, Nira had leapt up to the tops of the bookshelves and was jumping around them to try an find the creature. Aarson, got the “amazing” idea of knocking all the bookcases over, so the beast had less time to get at us. So with the help of Shen they did, knock over…basically, all of the book cases. During this whole fiasco, the shop owner finally came up shaking a book at all of us like it was our fault. Thankfully Lady Valeria talked him into leaving swiftly and Nira shoved the pair outside. I yelled for Aarson and Shen and the three of us left, no kidding when we got outside the old man locked his shop. He apparently thought his crappy little lock was going to keep this thing out. Lady Valeria told him to go home, and told us to follow her, she knew a safe place apparently.
Well her safe place is her apartment, which is in the lower section of Sharn. We asked her what she wanted, why us, ex. I told her to stop scrying us, and she informed us that is what her abbarent mark does. So I specifically told her to stop scrying Shen, it’s not his fault he has the most convincible mind ever. She blushed; he looked dumbfounded that someone could possibly see what he was doing. Since we’ve been home, my dragonmark has grown…and I mean severely grown. I can hardly keep it covered, it scrawled across my entire back, down both my arms, across the back of my neck and chest. I have never seen a Syberis mark on any house member, and as far as I know I cannot gain that level of power. Well it looks like I have. Now I have not informed Lady Valeria of this, I did ask what the largest mark they have seen is, and it is the Greater mark, which she has. They want us to be in House Tarkenen so we do not have to live afraid of people, so we don’t have to hide. Shen an Aarson do think it would be nice not to have to hide, I guess it would be nice to not wear long sleeves all the time. I do not think we should have this house attached to us in any way; I already wait for the door to be kicked in any time, this house will only bring more of that. But we are helping them with this one job. I asked that we be contacted by whomever was directing Lady Valeria and please do not send her to our house. Well we’re suppose to bring down a section of the Emerald Claw, fine by me, bunch of idiot people. We’re headed to New Cyre, which is where we need to find the Claw.
We stopped off at Nixies Grace to have dinner and it was fantastic, Porthos was being rude again however, pulled out our gruel fork and was eating that so they asked him to leave. He gave them the finger and left, the man apologized to us an we were like you gotta do what you gotta do. Finally we went home and back to my nice warm bed. I awoke a bit to hear Kane an Abel barking at Aarson’s door, I took my boot and threw it at the wall and screamed at Aarson to shut his dogs up. They did not quit so I got up, they were barking at our front door, everyone was really tense, but I was to tired to care. I walked straight to the door and pulled it open. Out in the dark was a lady, sitting staring at our door in the night. What do you want!? She came up and offered to shake my hand, to which I stared at her. She introduced herself as Lord Halas Tarkanan she was the one giving orders to Lady Valeria. I told them not to come to my house and they did anyway, oh well. So I stood out in the dark with one boot on talking to this lady about House Tarkenen, whom I am very sick of. She explained herself and what they were about and why they thought we were so important. Apparently I’ve started a buzz of my own with House Freya, there are a lot of little start up houses apparently. Finally we wrapped up the conversation and I trudged back inside.

Zarantyr 18th
Well we’ve made it back to Sharn, it has been a long time. We went back to our rented home, Mal was gone as usual. Aarson and I decided we wanted our own place, we were sick of renting and never knowing if we would have a place to come back to. We all headed out and found a pretty large place in Oak Bridge in Middle North Edge I have my own room for the first time in…ever really, Aarson is in the room next to me, Shen is across the entry way from me & Nira lives up in our loft. We have an open room at the moment because Porthos and Viren were suppose to share, but they are going to sleep on Viren ship; Porthos wife gave him a Pegasus for their anniversary and Aarson and I said no Pegasus in the house. We took a few weeks off and hung around Sharn and to settle into our new place of course. We actually have neighbors…neighbors who are friendly. They brought us a house warming gift of rolls, which Aarson ran out of nowhere and snatched from the Halfling child. Shen and Nira were very cordial to the Halfling woman and her child, Nira played with the kid; I do not really recall how to deal with people so I stood back and watched. They invited us to play in their neighborhood games which was in a week, we accepted and we did actually attend and played; we won too, which was a surprise we didn’t even use magic!
A few days before the games though Aarson and I were on the deck smoking pipe when we heard a noise coming from his room. All of the skulls were talking , and they did not have a particularly nice message, “Freya StormShard is in danger.” After a scan of the house someone or something had been inside, but I could not trace it back to a source. Well besides the message of impending doom we headed out to meet with the dragon who trained Shen, apparently he had a job for us. We were making our way through a crowded market when an inevitable stepped out towards our group, “Freya StormShard, you have committed crimes against Duler.” It billowed, then it proceeded to list of every person I had raised including the times I had been raised. Shen and Aarson moved forward while Nira darted across yelling for people to get out of the way. Vendors scattered reluctantly from their carts. Porthos floated up into the air and offered his condolences, apparently the creature was here to kill me and send me to Duler and because I had disrupted the flow of the world he was not going to aid me. Viren backed Shen and Aarson, I fell back and kept asking who had sent the creature but I got no answer. Nira and I were not really helpful after a short while though Aarson, Shen, and Viren killed the creature; we left in a hurry before the watch could come stick their noses into our business.
We made it to the bar where we found a dark skinned human dancing on stage. Finding ourselves a booth we settled down and noticed another group of adventurers across the room from us. Porthos left us to go talk to the other group, Nira followed shortly after as well as Viren; the group kept staring over at Aarson, Shen, and I until we reluctantly went over as well. The group has a name too! Which always just makes me giggle, I wonder if they have a group cheer too!? Oh anyway, The Keel Haulers is their name; they have a gnome who is overly fascinated with magic, I mean extreme. They have a shifter too, his name is Aarson! Proper Aarson’s face was amazing! Nira is quite taken by new Aarson, the main reason…he is furry. sigh Of course they have a cleric, of the Silver Flame, he just adores me I am sure! Ha! They had started to inquire about us when the dancer approached us, he was pleased we had all met and lead us to a private room. The dancer was the black dragon who trained Shen. He explained how we were all members of the Chamber. Oh, yes, the Chamber-we had not told Porthos, Nira, or Viren about it. Why the dragon asked, WHY? WHY? OH I don’t know because we were told not to! Well we filled them in and filled us in on the current section of the prophecy. Apparently a tarasque is going to awake and destroy Korvar. Well The Keel Haulers were going to head to Morgrave to research, we decided to meet up at Nixie’s Grace later that evening. We headed to the Silver Flame observatory to see about using their ory of the planes. They allowed us to and I inserted the dragon shard that had part of the prophecy in it. The room swirled with colors and images of the tarasque gaining strength from a breaking on different planes. We figure if we can get to each plane where the breaking is going to happen, we can absorb the powers and hopefully weaken and defeat the tarasque.
That was all seemingly productive so we headed off to Nixie’s Grace; the Keel Haulers needed to go to Aundair and Viren offered his airship as transportation for them. Their cleric slipped away while we were having drinks so Aarson and I stepped out to smoke, and happened to wander off to see Aarson my favorite shady half elf. We got back and everyone was around the table once again; we were calling it a night when Viren offered his ship for a place to continue a more relaxed conversation. While we were on the ship new Aarson asked Nira on a date, well, proper Aarson in a spur of manliness asked me to go on a date as well. I said sure, Nira squealed about a double date, and Shen looked puzzlingly at myself and Aarson and then looked away.
We went to Gayland’s a great theater in Torchfire, a play was put on by the Thelaran bards and actors . The bards sang an old story from Gallipher and Galliperhs quest to unite the lands. We had a salad, small hens and pasta, a sherbet for dessert. After we took a walk to sky cars, we took them from upper Durrah to over look Northern Breland.
Oh! Aarson got two dogs too, well they’re technically mage bred, he named them Kane and Abel; they are HUGE! But it is nice he got something living instead of another skull. The next morning we split ways, Viren, Porthos, and the Keel Haulers took Viren airship to Aundair. Shen, Aarson, Nira, and I went to Kubara so Shen could meditate for a while day about his spear. Upon arrival I managed to land us square in the middle of some lizard religious ceremony. After some frantic talking they let us stay and even guarded us because Shen had their sacred spear. When he was finally finished I teleported us home and we spent the next five days researching all the planes and waiting for Viren and Porthos to arrive home. When they finally returned we decided to go to the Eldeen Reaches, Shen, Aarson, Nira, and I had been doing research and found a bit about a great druid who lived in the Eldeen Reaches. Viren directed us all onto his ship and we were off; once we got pretty close to where we thought we needed to be I teleported us to the ground. A bunch of…well…country folks, so to speak, came running at our arrival. A weathered old man asked for our donations to see the great tree, Nira had a glass butterfly and a pretty awesome story to go with it and the tree thought that was fantastic. The druid told us where we needed to go and I asked him if he happened to have a fork attuned to the Lamnia plane, like maybe one of his branches was? He asked me if I would trade one of my fingers, I was all for it! Apparently though, he was just proving a point about his branches being his limbs, and he did not want to make a deal. How was I suppose to know?! We left the tree and the town was winding down for the evening; they had no inns or taverns and the weathered old man offered us a place to stay. We looked around at everyone doing chores and sitting silently around the fire and we declined and went back to the ship.
We traveled north and descended into the Eldeen Reaches; we had only been on the ground for a few mins when out of the trees came two trolls and a shambling mound! This caught everyone off guard; Shen, Porthos, Aarson, and Viren jumped into action. Nira readied herself for the best strike from a tree. The trolls moved a lot faster then I did and one approached me; I drew the power of my dragon mark but the troll must have noticed because he smashed his club down on me. I staggered back, I am so not used to getting hit. The other troll moved to Porthos and damaged him pretty severely, Aarson and Shen took over hitting the mound. The troll moved towards me and struck again, thankfully he missed, I reached out and with the lightest touch threw him to the plane of fire. Nira struck the mound, her and Shen finished the mound off, the other troll fell soon after, but it began to regenerate. Well after some crazy spell casting by Porthos and Viren mark of storm, they killed the troll.
Viren figured out where we were and we by passed a large section of our trip; late that afternoon we found our second landmark and paused to take a break. Well that was not the wisest idea, three huge Chimeras swooped in and began their assault. Nira jumped on ones back but got thrown off soon after. Shen and Aarson went after one, Porthos the other, and Viren jumped to Nira’s aid. I hid. Porthos was getting hurt badly and I shouted to Aarson to help him. The battle lasted quite a while, the last remaining Chimera tried to flee and for some unknown reason Porthos (usually the pacifist) followed even though he was extremely hurt. Well the Chimera threw the spikes from it’s tail and him, and he fell. We let the beast fly away and I directed Aarson to pick up his body, we took a quick look around and everyone headed back to the ship.
Once we were back on the ship I had Aarson put Porthos body in Viren quarters; he and Shen made sure I was not bothered. I cast my spell and asked Porthos if he would like to be raised, he replied yes. I took out a scroll of raise dead and began calling his soul back. He awoke a short while later, Aarson was being harassing over him but I shoved him out of the way. We left him to recoup after another handful of spells to shake the remaining poison from his body. We went upstairs and told everyone that Porthos had died and that he wanted his body to float to earth, so we had Shen wrapped up in blankets and threw him off the edge. Porthos stepped up to the edge of the rail and said “Boy glad that wasn’t me.” Everyone was mad, but it was really funny, tomorrow we’ll head into the plane of Lamnia.
We headed into Lammania the gate was very close to the temple where we suspected the seal was going to be breaking. There was a strange Druid lurking about the temple site, he had a very large hat. We passed him by and moved into the temple, Nira scouted ahead and found a trap…now, she found it, but did not disable it. She got stuck inside a cube of force energy. A moment later she got attacked by a demon that appeared in the cage. Nira handled it well, she moved herself out of the force cage and we all dimensioned doored past the cage. We moved cautiously down the hallway into a room that had a tyrannosaurus in it, not the regular kind either, this was a weretyrannosaurus, he had built himself a home in this weird place. Well he was not to happy to see us, as usual Shen an Aarson left forward to combat the beast. Nira kept looking for a great spot to leap from, while Porthos and I hung out in the back. This tyrannosaurus had made a really nice floor though, I mean, he had to have worked on it forever. We found a tomb that he was using as a foot rest which was pretty gross; Porthos took it in the end, but gross. This temple was getting weirder and weirder, and since we had no real idea of what the seal was suppose to be or look like, it made it very hard to know if we had succeeded.
As we continued on, we found an odd sight. Another demon, this one however, was a corrupted druid. I’m hoping this never happens to me, since I’m not a druid I really shouldn’t worry but the Six help me if something turns me into that. Anyway, the demon looked to be protecting the other person in the room; it almost looked like the demon was feeding off the energy of the other person. The demon was very apt at sucking life from it’s victims and within a few seconds Aarson and Porthos were hurt badly. I made a bold move up to the demon and used the spell dissinegrate to turn the demon to dust. The other being screeched and fell to the ground as well. That’s when the energy filled the room, enough to make your hairs stand on end. No one could see it but everyone could feel it, based off of that we figured we had probably defeated the seal in Lammania.
We decided to continue to explore the rest of this temple just incase we had missed the seals breaking. Nira darted a head of us to keep an eye out for traps, suddenly she shot over to a wall and picked up a stone that was glowing. I sighed heavily; well someone knows were here, that’s a stone of alarm. Of course jumping to the conclusion that whatever had put this here wanted to kill us, the boys got themselves all worked up. We rounded a corner and found two monkeys, again weremonkeys. Apparently Lammania is full of were creatures. They were huddled and staring frightened at the group of us, apparently this was another set of creatures that made there home here in this temple. Everyone put their weapons away and we spoke with them, they offered us fruit and everyone except myself took some. Apparently they had the stone to ward against the weretyrannosaurs, we informed them that it would not be bothering them anymore. They warned us not to wander about because of a large toad or frog that was deadly. Well we took their advice a little and decided it was time to head home. Once we were outside there was a squirrel staring at us from the ground, and then the frog appeared…large was a gross understatement for this beast! The thing was the size of the temple! Aarson looked to the squirrel and asked it if we should fight the frog, it shook its head no, should we run he asked, it shook its head yes. So we ran, the creepy druid outside the temple proved a worthy advocate. I grabbed everyone except Porthos and Rosey and teleported us to the entrance of the gate…we landed about 5 feet from just falling into it. We walked back through the forest back into Eberron. Everyone wants to build a vacation home in Lammania now, everyone except me.

Vault 27th
I finally found my journal, apparently my adorable yet hostile pseudo dragon had decided that my journal would make a good chew toy. This is where it had disappeared to. It has been a long time since I wrote, so many things have happened in our world. I never finished what I had begun to write last time. Shen and myself received a letter apparently from our Father: Dear Shen and Freya,I’ve always regretted not playing more games with you. Playing stones, miniature battles, three dragon ante; these were some of my fondest memories with my children. To make it up to you, let’s play a new game. It doesn’t have a name, and there aren’t any rules, but hopefully you figure it out before anyone is hurt.Love,Dad
We had supposedly killed Charku and our Father is dead, he died in Shen’s arms. We don’t really know what any of this means, we ran around following riddles we found everywhere. About a week after starting this riddle game and getting no closer to who was leading us on it a dead body was thrown at us that had, the hunt begins carved into it. However, we ended up having more pressing issues to deal with, the chamber needed us to help prevent another world wide disaster.
That in mind we booked out of Sharn on an air ship captained by a man named Breemer we were headed to Aerie. Of course, our lives never stay simple. We were hardly on the ship for three days and a charming man named Ruby, who seemed to be very disturbed. To sum up our whole ship turned out to be possessed by a demon. It was a trial air ship and was being powered by a demon.
We did our best to try to stave the demon from escaping the dragon shard that it was in, however those efforts proved useless. The demon broke mostly lose and we jumped ship with what was left of the crew. Horrible dreams came to all of us while we were on the ship, dreams regarding the demon that was holding the ship. We also delved more into our fates in dealing with our assignment with the chamber. This information came from a dragon shard that Sir Kill had left us.
After we jumped ship a woman who was working under house orders that tried to ditch us in the middle of a traveling spell. We ran all over Valenar trying to find out where this horrible world changing disaster was going to take place. All that we found was a great deal of rudeness and hostility. Arson, Shen and myself are not Valenar elves, nor are we full elves, thus we were not welcomed at most large towns within Valenar. Our group settled in a small town that allowed half elves as well as full elves and sent a few messages to Sir Kill. After getting the most vague replies we finally had to just sit tight and wait for our time.
Thankfully, this did not take long a huge meteor crashed into a town we had visited a few days before. It destroyed the whole town, and it housed an egg, an egg that releases hell fire worms. This was what we had been waiting for, of course, there was more involved in this then just waiting around for an explosion, but that is a lot to write. To sum up, we won…well I think we won. We have the egg currently in our possession and I will message Sir Kill tomorrow to find out what we should do.

Vault 17th
Well it has been a while, and as a while builds time, many things happen. Well after the last ordeal we agreed to take this young man named Allene down to the cogs to get information out of him. He really wanted to break into adventuring and Sascal told us where to find him and take him. We were trying to find out if his father had any other allegiances besides the Dark Six. Well we brought him adventuring all right, gave him a ton of good weaponry that we had lying around and everything. The only down fall…we fell, into an empty cavern city. One thing leads to another and we walked under a symbol of death. This kills those who are not strong enough to resist. Nea and Allene died. End of adventuring for this young man, well it was a stressful time for all of us. Bo’dok had lost Nea and I wanted to leave with no way out, transportation magic did not work. Bo’dok went temporarily insane and decided he would risk his life destroying the symbol of death, even though I could easily remove it the next day. Therefore, he tromped his metal ass in there and smashed the shit out of it. Only a few minutes later we narrowly escaped death again, after we ran into a stone golem and a flesh golem. After that incident, we looked for a more rapid exit. A large voice warned of the aberrant mark making a comeback, which we chose to ignore. Finally, I felt like I could get Teleport to work but we had to many people, Bo’dok sacrificed his life so we could leave.

Vult 3rd
Well…spidergeddon. It is over, we all still have a home to live in, and spiders do not over run the world. Sadly, however, we were not the ones to stop it. To save myself the annoyance of relooking the awful event, I shall sum up. We ran all over Sharn looking for this Professor Bleary, not a real professor mind you, he is a puppet master. Anyway, we find the guy try to reason with him and get some answers on what the heck is up with the spider situation, needless to say we failed at that. He dimensional door’d away from us and we could not find him again. So we headed to Morgrave University to see if anyone knew anything about Kyber because apparently these spiders come from there. They however were less then helpful but did tell us of a possible entrance to Kyber located at the Daggers Hilt. We headed off to find a boat and some guides and we stopped at a cave about a mile upstream, right about where the professors at Morgrave said it should be. Oh I forgot to mention that apparently since we were in Argonesson an Elf had been following us, apparently we killed the man he was looking to kill and he wanted the axe. Well Bo’dok had long sold the axe and the man insisted on following along with us. So we allowed it and now we have a Valinar Elf named Mal living with us.
Any who back to the entrance to Kyber, we looked into the cave and headed inside. Overall it was your usual cave, normal bugs and dripping…unfortunately we did not hear until it was too late, a chittering noise. A giant scorpion was right in front of us, it grabbed Shen and he shadowed away, then it grabbed me…and killed me. Yes, that is correct; yet again Freya Storm Shard has fallen into the great unknown. Well luckily for me I find it quite alright to come back, so, I did. Well during the whole raising me, me having very poor health due largely to the fact that a giant scorpion stabbed me with a great amount of poison, spidergeddon came and went; and was stopped by an annoying group called the Onyx Diamonds.
Yes, so for all our trouble we got nothing. I raised a friend of Autoberry, and found his beloved puppet; which I stole from that stupid professor who could have saved us all this trouble if he had just talked to us. I think if I should ever happen across him again, putting him out of this world might be best for everyone.
Well I have had it, again because of the stupid houses and their outrageous beliefs I am poor. This girl has had enough, so, I did what anyone would do in a situation such as mine; I started my own healing service. Freya’s Healing Service, we also do armored protection or whatever else you need us to do. I made posters; Bo’dok is awesome and is letting me use his church, (the church of the Northern Winds) as a base camp for people to contact me. Nea calls me when people come in using Shen’s ring, and I skip on down and charge my way below cost amazing healing. So far, all I have had to fix is some broken bones and a few diseases. However, only one person has been able to pay me in full; but hopefully it will get my name out. We took a good amount of time after this death to looking into better ways to raise me if such an accident happens again. So we began scowering the area in the lower wards to see if we could find ourselves a friend with a morally gray outlook on resurrection. This got us into a mess of trouble however, see, the members of the Dark Six are not the most welcomed group in all of Korvair. That being said, we had a bit of a misunderstanding right from the start. We left Mal out in the hall to guard against anything that might come at us from outside and Aarson, Shen, and I headed inside. Well the person we met with after much flashing my spells around left to go apparently get the cleric that was morally gray. Yeah, so they would not give Mal any answers so Mal did not move when they asked. This set up an uproar within the bar and we came out to settle the situation. No one ever wants to work out problems with us they all want to fight or run, these were run. Therefore, I demanded an explanation and threw myself off the second level to the bar below. The man after much shouting finally paid me and we apologized to the bar keep and we left to come back another day. A few days later, we met with the same man again, this time he actually brought someone back with him. We discussed a few things regarding the Dark Six and he agreed to let me into their little…I do not know what it is yet. We will have to see.

Erith 22
After a day of perusing the city we headed out to the pubs for a night, Aarson’s sword needed to be unlocked and we needed to change people’s outlook on life in order to do that. Pip snuggled into the hood of my cloak to avoid the rain as we headed towards my favorite place, the Broken Anvil. Matron Tara was working and she asked about our adventures, I do not know why she asks though; she never really wants to know what happened! Oh well, we ordered a round and I was feeling a bit adventuress so I downed mine quickly. I noticed a man sitting alone at the bar who looked quite down. Aarson and I approached him and began to talk to him, after a good period of time and a few ales the man opened up and Aarson and I slowly began to slip a different path into his mind. The man left with a new outlook as we headed back to our table; it was about that time that we noticed a group of young “delinquents” (I’m sure that’s what I was called when I was their age too.) We headed over to have a chat with these young men, turns out that they were newly starting adventurers. After a bit of coaching and persuading we convinced them to take on a group much larger than them to gain respect in the adventuring community. The guys gave them better weapons and we left them to plot their future, Aarson felt convinced we had done enough for the night and we ordered some food.
Pip was eating scraps that Aarson was throwing at him, though he liked to not catch them and let them hit me and then get them off the table. About that time, Pip decided that it would be a fun idea to cause some mischief as he scampered off into the kitchen. Tara let us go back to get him and I sent out a heart broken sadness, and pip slowly crawled out from under a table and slowly climbed up my leg, arm and back into my hood. It was then that I noticed Nea with something in her hand. After a bit of bickering we figured out she stole a roll, she had no money and Bo’dok was not with so I told Tara to have her work it off or I would just call the Sharn Watch. We enjoyed the rest of our night while Nea cleaned the dishes, on our way home we noticed a little guy hanging outside our door. It was a gnome we sold the little automated spiders to, apparently a man named Autoberry in Cliffside needed to talk to us about them or something. It was late so we told the gnome we would deal with it in the morning and we went to bed.
To sum up we met with a spider-crazed freak who tells us about this extremely deadly spider called the Hasen Death. They live to breed, they crawl inside the host, normally a humanoid, lay their eggs and after a few days the person explodes with more spiders who do the same thing. We are talking spider-freaking geddon here, could over run the whole world if it is not taken care of. So great, that is about all that is new in our world, unfortunately.

Nymm 12
Now we are home. Well Shen and I are home; we docked in the city of towers on the 11th and went to the Anvil for a few nights. After that, I thought it would be fitting for us to find a permanent home. We went in search over the middle wards to find a home, but they were all just a bit too expensive. After a few days, we found a place in the lower wards in Vallia Tower on the central plato. I got two sets of bunks, five armchairs, and a table to furnish our home, all one room of it. Also on this day 26 years ago Shen Dai and Freya Stormshard were born, quite fitting that we are in our town to celebrate it. This brought to light that we did not know anyone else’s birthdays, Aarson was born on Zanatyr 18, Bo’dok on Rhaan 22nd, Ane on Barrakas 11th. Shen got me a spy glass for my birthday and now I no longer have a reason to steal Sig’s, and I got him a 3rd eye of surge. Aarson got me Kadavish weed, and Bo’dok made me a wonderful punching dagger that has my name on one side of the blade and Shen’s on the other. Bo’dok also made Shen a heavy pick with the same engraving on it. Aarson wanted to go to the Eldeen Reaches to see is father, Bo’dok was busy making weapons better so he told Ane to go with Shen, Aarson and I to the Eldeen Reaches. I teleported us from our house to the Eldeen Reaches and we camped for a night, then I did it again in the morning straight to Aarson’s father’s home. I had been there before but the yard had not been tended nor had the house. We could tell that he had been there recently so I sent him a message to let him know we were at his home. The evening was an odd one, Aarson filled his dad in on his travels and we stayed the evening. We left in the morning and went hunting to find animal pelts to make blankets for our home. We got a bear, 4 wolfs, 5 foxes, and 2 deer. Aarson got a bear blanket, Shen and I both wolf, Bo’dok a deer blanket, and Ane has a fox cape.
I concord the top bunk and Shen got the bottom; Aarson has the other top bunk with Bo’dok on the bottom. My pseudo dragon sleeps on the end of my bed, despide the fact that I made him a hammock. His name is Pip; he is a vindictive little guy who wishes me good night with hopes of nightmares. So far, I have avoided those, knowing my parents killer died by my hands helped elevate those. So now we are looking for what to do next, I love being in Sharn around thousands of people. Once we were back from the Eldeen Reaches Bo’dok gave Aarson a spiked chain that he had made him. So we’ve settled into this little place and are awaiting our next bout of not dying.

Eyre 16
Our lives are no longer at risk, we accomplished the task we set out from to remove the curse from our lives. This has taken us almost a full year, and I have not had time to write these last few months. Now we are safely back in Sharn I have time to catch up on my writing, it is important to write it keeps my mind fresh.
After we got a map to Argonessen we left only to run into a dragon turtle who damaged Sig’s ship. We stopped on the island of undead elves and repaired our ship, there we found a better map and to my excitement Kadavish leafs! Once the ship was repaired, we moved on to Argonessen, we stayed away from the island at first because it was evening. This proved to be a mistake and because of our hesitation, our newfound enemy murdered a good portion of a barbarian village there. We rushed ashore to see what the problem was and found a clan member left fighting off the others. We aided him and rushed to help his dragon leader and the rest of his clan. That did not go well for us, though we’re sneaky we were not sneaky enough. Though Shen got to kill a spell caster and now he can unlock his spears powers. After freeing the dragon Ice Wing we rested and prepared to head to the Ory of Vortum. The barbarians informed us of a secret entrance to get to the top of the observatory, and we began our climb up to the top. We passed through a hoard of gold and we passed that sadly, we seemed to be following a pseudo dragon up this tower. We fought quite a number of small battles on our way up, the worst was a room that shot lighting everywhere once we finished that room, Aarson kind of lost it and took the leaders head. He has now reduced it to a skull but he refuses to get rid of it. Once we reached the top the moons had aligned themselves in a eclipse the higher we got up on this tower the more our dragon marks burned into our flesh. We saw a raging battle below, we went to destroy an orb on the side of the room when a blue dragon screeched and flew in our direction. There was a silver dragon in a small cage on the other side of the tower; I went over to help it in hopes that it would be able to help us. He was missing an eye and when I healed him, he knew my name. Finally the blue dragon fell backwards off the tower, we worked on getting rid of the orb, we struck it and the orb shattered and sent pieces flying into myself and a few of my companions. At that moment, another beast appeared out of nowhere, it was a God Slayer; the dragon in the cage told us we must destroy it or it would kill non-stop. We fought the beast for quite a while and finally it fell; we got the silver dragon out of the cage and he changed into a familiar face of Sur’kil. Well that was a nifty surprise; we were soon joined by another two dragons and thanked for making sure the God slayer was not successful and for breaking the dragons’ eye. We were rewarded for our actions and thankfully, we broke the curse that was haunting our lives. Shen got the honor of being taught a new discipline from one of the dragons. Aarson got a sword that was keyed to his deity. Bo’dok got his wish to have his brother buried properly was granted and his ax began to show signs of power, Nea got a tomb; and I happened to receive the pseudo dragon that I had been following up the tower. We were accepted into an order to assist the dragons if they need us, which is a large honor.

Nymm Sul 10th
Never again, will I travel to Dread Hold prison; if I am sent there, I will kill myself before I have to spend time there. We got in just fine, via boxes Shen and I kept the communication open between us because of our rings. Ba’ralk crept out of the crate and snuck up behind one of the Dwarf guards; even though he was spotted, we still got the upper hand in the attack. The Dwarf set of an alarm and Aarson, Shen and I ran down the hall while Ba’ralk, Bo’dok and Nea wanted to stay behind and search the guards. Aarson and I argued with them for a brief moment and the three half elves headed further into the prison, while the dwarfs stayed behind. They caught up to us quickly and we moved into a forge; a construct snake lunged out at Shen who moved behind it, Aarson moved into assist and I fired bolts at the other two guards. Bo’dok, Nea, and Ba’ralk came running down the hall to assist and we cleared the room of life. I grabbed a set of keys that were on the wall and after another argument about staying to loot or leave, Shen, Aarson and I moved out of the forge and towards the cells. We found the kid, and I say that because he really was a kid, who the Seawavrines were looking for and took him out of his cell. After pestering him to take us to Theraxis’ body, he had been killed after digging in a mine, we gave the other prisoners the keys and moved back towards the forge. Bo’dok had my ring that allowed him to keep in touch with Shen; Shen relayed the sounds of battle and finally the sound of Bo’doks scream as all went silent. Suddenly Nea was running down the hall towards us; she quickly explained what had happened, Bo’dok and Ba’ralk were dead. This put quite the damper on our situation as we readied ourselves for battle. A large ogre came stalking down the hall as Aarson, Shen, Nea and I all released a shower of blows, arrows and spells. The creature fell quickly and we moved up to the forge; the dwarfs Nea said where with the ogre were gone. Shen and Aarson quickly gathered up Ba’ralk and Bo’dok and we moved to find Theraxis. We headed down a path that lead us to an underground cavern, slowly emerging from the darkness were three eyeless creatures with long tentacles for arms. Shen & Aarson dropped Bo’dok and Ba’ralk on the group and they landed with a loud thud. Nea was in the front and she quickly fell back behind Aarson and Shen. One of the creatures approached me and I dodged past its flailing arms. I grabbed the creature by the arms and let a blast of negative energy lose, leaving black marks where my hands had been. The creature fell to the ground. Shen moved up and slashed the creature across the front and it fell in one blow. Aarson shot a bolt of energy through the air and knocked the third creature out. I found the only gnome body that was covered with tattoos and shoved it into my bag. Aarson and Shen picked up Bo’dok and Ba’ralk and we ran for the laughing lady. I pulled out a sending stone and signaled Sig to get where we were asap. We stopped in the hall that led to the ship, there were two giant ballista’s aimed at the ship and a half a dozen guards patrolling the dock around it. Thankfully, no one saw us; I gave myself the ability to fly and quickly flew to the ship. Sadly, they saw me as I landed on the deck; I pulled the kid to the deck and I hovered above Shen’s head. Nea ran back behind Shen and Aarson and they moved up to attack. I flew back to the ship and pulled Aarson to the ship and I took his place; he dumped Ba’ralk’s body on the deck and using his mark moved Shen to the ship. Shen dropped Bo’dok and moved to go stop the ballista’s from damaging the ship; the lead guard shouted for the ballista’s to fire upon our ship and without assistance they both let bolts fly into our ship. Aarson quickly cut through the guards that stood in Nea and my way and I shouted for her to get to the ship. Shen smashed through the ballista I yelled for him to get on the ship and I switched with Aarson so he landed on the deck, together they smashed through the remaining guards on the ship. Nea was slowly picking through the remaining guard; I used my mark and dropped her on the ship. I flew back to the ship and we started to help get the ship out of the dock. The ship was badly damaged and shortly after we escaped the prison it began to sink; the crew climbed to the rigging and I said a prayer to the Devowerer to give us safe passage. Shen, Aarson and I tied ourselves together and we could see a ship headed our direction. Nea took Bo’doks ring and floated on top of the water with his and Ba’ralks bodies. Shen and Aarson struggled to stay on the surface, me, I just held my breath; I could hardly move in my armor. I could hear Shen and Aarsons grumbles of disapproval with my plan as I sank deeper into the ocean. My lungs felt like they were going to burst; suddenly I was being pulled towards the surface and up out of the water by Shen and Aarson. I collapsed into Shen coughing; I don’t like swimming Brother, was all I could say as Aarson and Shen laughed.

Well the trip to Dreadhold prison was the stupidest idea we have every gone along with; we all almost died! Those bastard pirates thought we would drop them off at the dock in Port Verg! We had one of Sig’s men row them ashore and we set off to Regal Port. Now this would have been a more pleasant trip if we were not hauling two dead companions. Shen, Aarson and I studied Theraxis body and I sketched out the marks in my book. Though they were not marks we were familiar with. We finally made it back to Regal port and only having a short period of time to pull their souls back from Dolurrh we got to work looking for the spell to get them back. We meandered to a shady part of town, which isn’t saying much this whole place is shady, and found a woman who had what we needed; for a costly price. I paid her to keep them for us for a few days and we went in search of a sect of Dark Six members. After a bit of asking we found a rather large church, much to my disappointment it wasn’t even lead by a spell caster. He asked if I would like to lead a service so I figured, why not? Wow! I’ve never had such a enthusiastic group before; Aarson said I did a great job, he’s even following the Traveller now! Shen is still not convinced that the Six is the way, but he’ll see, someday.
We figured out from the journal and Theraxis body that we needed to go to a place called Trebaserina. Only one problem…no one has been there in years; our usual map store had nothing but an outline of the island. Though the owner informed us that the pirate prince Rygar might have a better copy, and he wished us luck getting that. We headed out to find prince Rygar’s ship the Dragons Eye; once on the dock we found one of Rygar’s men and asked to speak to him. He laughed us off and told us he was in town if we wanted to try to speak with him. So we headed back into town to find the tavern that Rygar was at; we moved towards the bar of a packed tavern and asked the bar keep about Rygar. He had not been in yet that evening, but it was likely that he would be in. There were a lot of bar contests going on such as knife throwing, and arm wrestling; Aarson, Shen and Bo’dok wanted to try their hand at them while we waited. Shortly after our arrival prince Rygar came into the tavern and took a seat in the middle of the bar on a raised table. Much to my surprise the little guy from the Six sermon was chained to one of Rygar’s guards. The little guy had really tried to kill the man!
Our group made our way to the prince to ask about the map; thankfully, he was rather helpful because of the people success at the different contests. He gave us a note that told his crew to let us aboard to see the map. We left the crowded bar and went back to get some sleep, we went to the Dragons Eye first thing in the morning. The crew was a bit hesitant to let us in but after seeing the note and a bit of annoying chatter; they let us aboard; with a large group to watch us. The map that was in the war room was the same map that the shop had; we asked the crew if there were maps elsewhere on the ship and they said the prince’s room. After a bit of pestering and a few gallaphers we managed to get into the prince’s room. We found a very detailed map of Trebazserina. I cast invisibility on the map and stuck it into my bag and we quickly left the ship.
We had not made it very far on the docks when a voice called out from the fog something about that damn dragon’s eye! On all sides of the dock people climbed out of the water to engage us in a battle. One of the women made herself large and went to fight Aarson, while Shen and Bo’dok took care of the two that were coming towards them. I shrunk the large person down and Aarson began his assault while Ba’ralk and Nea shot from the side. Bo’dok and Shen were having trouble fighting the men who had very similar abilities as they did so I moved over to assist them. Just as I got there Bo’dok landed a solid blow to the one, and Shen followed sending the man to the ground. Finally, with a large group effort we managed to slay the last of the group and we shoved them into the sea.
We stocked up on supplies and headed to the Swiftwind to leave for Trebaserina. After a few days at sea we reached the rocky shore of Trebaserina, we took a row board to shore. About 200 ft from shore a huge undead whale rammed the side of our boat sending everyone but Ba’ralk into the water. Aarson cast fly on himself and made it close to shore. Bo’dok tried to climb into the boat but failed; Shen climbed over the edge of the boat and just as he was clearing the edge I grabbed his leg and pulled us both to shore with my spell. Our group was split again dwarfs and elfs. To make things worse slowly rising out of the water were half a dozen laceadons moving towards Aarson, Shen and I. I pulled out my signet to the Dark Six and shouted towards the creatures. They slowly turned towards me and awaited my orders; after sending them to go fight the whale Aarson switched Bo’dok to his position and I began flying out to Ba’ralk. I moved him to shore and landed right in front of the whale. I slowly flew out of the whales reach but he tried to smash me down as I did; thankfully he missed and I ordered one of the undead men to push our boat to shore. Aarson pulled Nea to safety and flew back to help the others. We had just reached the shore when the massive whale charged at Bo’dok and Shen who were at the water’s edge. They ducked out of the way, as the whale beached itself and they quickly finished it off. We took our boat and began up stream to reach the mainland, now we spend a lot of time on boats, it does not look very hard…but it was. We made a bit too much noise and had to fight a swarm of flowers that burned the flesh and the senses. We made it to a small beach and as we were about to land a large fire like cat swooped down from the ceiling. Shen threw his spear and Aarson let loose a bolt of energy and the cat smashed into the ground. The beach was not a safe place to camp for the evening the tide would be coming in and the beach would be gone. Finally we made it to the mainland of Trebaserina; we set up camp among the twisted trees of the island and I readied my spells.
As I settled into my watch, I smoked my pipe and laid back against the tree. It was a quiet night, and everyone fell asleep quickly. Quiet is never good, suddenly I saw a few figures moving among the trees, I looked around at my companions and one of the beasts was standing over Shen’s sleeping body. I yelled to wake the others and pulled Shen to where I was as I stood in his place. I heard shouts of anger and steel as the world went dark around me.

I heard a voice I did not recognize saying my name and asking me if I wanted to come back. I was confused but I replied yes and I took a gasp of breath and opened my eyes to a small man leaning over me and Shen and Aarson at my sides. I sat up as the old man welcomed me back; I was beyond confused. Shen and Aarson looked relieved to see me and I was on a ship. My stomach lurched I had died; the man left and Bo’dok came into the room. Aarson and Shen filled me in on my demise; which made my head spin. After I had moved Shen the gorilla lashed out with all four of his arms and beat me to the ground. Bo’dok had come back from reliving himself to find Aarson and Shen in battle and myself lying on the ground. After they had slayed the others; Aarson, Bo’dok and Ba’ralk tried to figure out what to do, while Shen took out his frustrations. Ba’ralk tried to cast the complicated spell from my scroll but it burned up before he could finish it. After Shen had calmed down a bit, they sent a message to Sig to meet us in the bay. Shen and Aarson moved me to our boat and they navigated away from the island. Bo’dok grumbled about not being there on time. Sig rushed the Swiftwind back to port, and once they were docked, they went to the church of the Sovereign Host; which was not the best idea. Apparently, the man was put off by their request. It is not such an outlandish thing; but thankfully, he directed them to the proper house. After a long wait, an old man agreed to help them cast the spell. They paid him and he tried to cast the spell but it also failed before he could finish. There was a great deal of swearing and now they were out of scrolls. Shen and Aarson ran to the old woman who had the scrolls before and after a bit of bickering purchased another. They gave it to the old man who tried again. Apparently, I’m a third times the charm type of girl because that one did the trick. So now, I’m adventuring to pay Aarson and Shen back. Thankfully, I had a scroll of my own or it’d be worse. Aarson and Shen both said that I should have just left Shen there; since I can use the scrolls. That is true, but…I could fail, and I do not think I could watch him die. Not when he was helpless and I could do something about it, but it doesn’t matter anymore because they took care of the problem like I knew they would.

Well we headed back to that forsaken island, fought through numerous undead and insects. After days of staying in this underground hell hole we made it to Jahmest’s tomb; and Jahmest he’s a nice guy. Filled us in on what where we needed to go next and let us take the last relic. Apparently we need to go to Argonessen, the land of the dragons…we have to fulfill some prophecy? I messaged Sirkill about it and much to my annoyance he was captured by some enemy and he also said we had to fulfill the prophecy. If only we knew what that ment, sadly on our second trip to the island we lost Ba’ralk. I spoke to him and he told me he did not want to come back, he wanted to be buried on the island. Now the suck part, we left the island already, but it is Bo’dok’s brother so we will give him the burial he deserves. So we headed back to Regal Port to stock up on supplies and a good map to Argonessen, we’re going to need all the help we can get on this one.

Nymm Far 7th
We got what we needed, Eliam’s journal; an added bonus would be Charku’. He walked down the stairs without much fuss; and we climbed abroad the swiftwind. We took the changling down to the eating quarters and pushed him to the floor; I sat down in front of him, not speaking just staring at him. He kept my father’s image on his face, which just made this nightmare worse; if Shen was going to let me, I was going to kill this man. He struggled with his bindings until Aarson tightened them up and we began to see just what the Emerald Claw was doing. When he refused to answer I pressed the tip of my dagger into his neck, a small welt of blood ran down his neck. He said it was Durra’s idea to come and get the book before us; Durra had been killed, and my heart jumped knowing we had taken someone he had loved. They wanted the journal because it has the details on how to enter Jheamast’s tomb. I began to lose my patience with this man; I demanded that he changed his appearance, though he did not. He explained he had been using this man’s looks for so long and that is what he was comfortable looking like. Greed is what got him left for dead; he had found a gauntlet and hid the treasure from our parent’s party. While on watch one night, he put the gauntlet on and it over took him. He turned into a rathe, and began to attack everyone around him; thankfully, they were able to stop him but because of his betrayal, they left him with his rapier in the Valenair desert. That is the reason he killed Shen and my parents, his own stupidity. I begged Shen not to fight him; this man did not deserve a fair fight. Bo’dok’s follower came down stairs with a glass of water and told me that Bo’dok said to give it to the man before we killed him. I held the glass for the man until he was through; I grabbed him by the throat and released a black bolt that ran through his body as his eyes rolled back in his head. I held back tears as my father’s face faded away; Shen took him up to the deck and threw him into the ocean. I did not feel any relief knowing the man was dead. Aarson, Shen and Bo’dok returned and we began pouring over Eliam’s journal. Apparently, he had a huge crew going but the air ship they were on crashed and killed most on board. He had an artificer named Theraxis and they never got into Jheamast’s tomb; there was a pillar with dragon marks all over it but Theraxis could not identify all of them. He sketched them down in the journal so he would be able to work on them later; however, Theraxis had gotten a hold of the journal and stolen his notes. We told Sig to head to port Verg since it was the closest; we would begin searching for this Theraxis once we reached the port.
We found a tavern called Bilg & Bullsworth run by a Halfling named Albred Tinkle. Apparently, there are two main pirate groups in this area, the Seawaverins and the Cloud Reavers. While we were in the tavern, Aarson asked if I wanted to have a shot with him, I was still a bit shook up from the changling so I figured why not. Now I am not one to have more than an ale a night, if that. I finished off my ale, and the shot it was then I noticed the Dwarf, it was the same Dwarf that was in the shop when Shen and I got our rings. I climbed over the table much to the surprise of my friends and marched over to his table. Apparently I kept asking him if he was following us, and he had better not have been following us. Aarson and Shen were at my side instantly pulling me away from the Dwarf, I tried to explain to Shen that he was following us but he just explained that I was drunk. Aarson, Shen and Bo’dok apologized to the Dwarf and began to drag me back to our table. I sat down in a chair and the Dwarf began to come over to our table with his dagger in his hand, I whispered to Shen that he was following us and I pulled out my dagger…which was quickly removed. From what I remember, the Dwarf was excited about the symbol on Bo’dok’s shield, and after a good period, the brother that Bo’dok thought was dead was alive and standing before us. His name is Ba’ralk I do not know anything about him really, other than Bo’dok says this is his brother, so I guess we will roll with that for a while. My head began to hurt from the liquor that I had drank so while sitting at our table I tried to fix my ailments with a little magic. Boy that got attention, Shen grabbed my hands and told me to stop; I lost my spell. But once they got talking again I somehow managed to successfully heal myself; I turned to Aarson and told him never again, ugh shots do not like me.
Thankfully, I sobered up because the bar got more and more crowded, we saw a dirty, scruffy old man across the bar and once he caught our eye, he began to hobble our way. He had heard we were looking for Theraxis and he knew how to get him, we were supposed to meet at a house down the road. Since we do not really care to go to things unprepared Aarson and Shen kept watch for me so I could prepare my spells; and after an hour’s time we came back downstairs and left for the house. The meeting consisted of a large group of unsavory looking people, Seawavrins to be exact; the young ones looked very inexperienced and the old ones were too old to be any good. Turns out that Theraxis is locked up in Dread Hold prison, their plan is to get him and another man out, by stealing their rivals, the Cloud Reavers, ship. The ship is a common vessel to sail in and out of the Dread Hold locks; so we sail in fight our way to these two men and leave. Bo’dok was very excited for some reason about this plan; I do not understand why since the Dwarfs run Dread Hold. We left the house to head back to our ship; we told Sig of our amazing plan and asked him to follow a half a day behind in case of trouble. Then we began our assault on the Laughing Lady, now we are not sea worthy people, we wear armor so climbing aboard the Laughing Lady proved to be quite the feat. I made Shen stronger as we approached the ship and he climbed up the rope, Aarson went to follow but was having a harder time. I used my deity’s favor and flew up above the battle, Aarson changed places with Shen and we quickly took out the ship. Ba’ralk and Bo’dok struggled aboard and we signaled the Seawavrins. Now we just have to wait to make our way into Dread Hold prison.

Nymm Zol 4th
Sur’kil finally found out what happened to that adventuring party that visited the temple of Kha’shazul; they are dead. All of them; all within a year, except for a man named Jheamast, who is rumored to be dead and buried with all his worldly possessions somewhere on Trebaz Sinara. He had a journal that kept track of his adventures. We were all a bit shocked when Sur’kil told us about this discovery; Shen seemed the most troubled. Sur’kil was headed out to see if he could find a cure for this curse that was now upon us and hired us to find his tomb and possible the answer to why we had these marks. We left for Regal Port in search of information about Jheamast. After a few boring days at sea, we arrived in Regal Port; this area of the Lhazaar Principalities is not governed by normal law, which suits me quite well. Sur’kil warned us to keep to ourselves and not to draw unwanted attention; he is worried about those Emerald Claw freaks. We docked and went ashore where a money scrounging Halfling from house Ghallanda tried to offer a tour for an obscene amount of money. Merchants lined the docks and I was pleased for the large crowds, it would make blending in a breeze. We decided that getting off the docks would be best; on our way into town we moved past two Emerald Claw fanatics, they didn’t look like they were specifically looking for anyone, but who knows. We found a tavern called Darkleaf, a shady place where you can easily keep to yourself. A large gorilla with four arms was running the bar; we paid for a room and waited for a table to open up. See we never sit in the middle of a bar; you are always in the middle of harm’s way there. A large variety of creatures littered the tables. Oddly enough there was another group of Elves with one Dwarf, it was bizarrely like looking in a mirror. Finally that group left and Shen snagged the table before a small Halfling could. Aarson bought a round of drinks and we went to work finding information on Jheamast.
Shen and I spoke to the bar tender, who turned out to be a wealth of information and he gave us free ale; though we passed those off to Aarson and Bo’dok. After discussing what we had heard with Aarson and Bo’dok; Aarson and I spoke to a man about our situation. Amazingly, he had a lot to say about Jheamast as well; apparently, only one person had been to Trebaz Sinara to see Jheamast’s tomb; a man named Eliam ir’Veldras. No one knew what had happened to him after, but there was a journal that had detailed his trip. A man named Vorgaard, he lives on the mainland above the straits. With that information in hand, we rested and first thing the next morning we went to Sig with our information. However, we forgot one thing…a map. I jumped off the ship with Aarson following close behind. We found a shop selling maps and purchased ours. Apparently, we were not the only ones who had recently purchased that map. After a bit of gold to refresh the shop keeps memory we learned that some Emerald Claw members were in and had purchased the same map as we did; I do not know what they want but I know we have to get it first. Aarson and I stopped to buy some pipe weed and hurried back to the ship. Sig took us out of the harbor and towards Vorgaard’s estate. The time on the ship was uneventful, Shen, Aarson and Bo’dok all learned how to control their marks and what they could do. Aarson switched places with everyone, Shen grew to twice his size, and Bo’dok stood firm despite Shen and Aarson’s best attempts to tackle him. Watching them lightens my mood; I switched Bo’dok out of his ropes and back. As we neared Vorgaard’s estate, we could see another ship moving about the bay, I darted up to Sig and demanded his spy glass. He went on for a full minute about how much it cost and did I know how much money that was?! I pulled out a pouch of gold and he handed it over. Aarson was conveniently perched in the crow’s nest; I swapped places with him and shouted that he best not try to switch back yet. I could not see the captain’s face or anyone familiar so I swapped Aarson back up to the nest and returned Sig’s spy glass. Sig let us off at the dock and circled back around so the other ship would not catch them blindly.
We looked up the cliff side, it was clear to see that Vorgaard’s estate was on fire. We rushed up the stairs to an awaiting group of Emerald Claw members they had beaten us here. As we approached the group my stomach became a world of knots, I looked to Shen with my hands shaking, our Father stood on the steps of the estate. Shen looked back to me with disbelief, I stared at my Father, and all I wanted to do was to run into his arms. Nevertheless, this could not be our Father, we approached the group as the man using my Father’s looks spoke. It took the man a while to realize who Shen and I were; though we knew who he was the moment he spoke, Charku’, the man who killed our parents. I have never wanted to kill a man more than this one, Aarson and Bo’dok lept into action moving to slay the creatures blocking the path to the estate. I increased Shen’s strength and moved towards Charku’. Shen moved to the creature in front of him and began his assault. Bo’dok’s follower was doing a fair job of picking off the men that fired arrows down from the balcony above, while he smashed through the creatures on the ground. Aarson was sending bolts of fire throughout the battle, and Shen battled the creature to his front. I moved forward towards Charku’, with all the rage I had pent up for the last five years I grabbed him by the throat as I released the energy from my mark. Claws tore into his flesh and he fell back in pain; he fought back knocking me down the stairs and showering ash everywhere. Bo’dok moved up to the man and kept him at bay; I healed myself and Aarson had also moved to join the fight and the two knocked the man to the ground. Bo’dok moved to heal his follower and Shen finished off the man he was battling; I stood over Charku’ and asked Shen what we should do. He was barely alive, Aarson urged me to finish him off; Shen wanted to keep him alive and began to tie him up.
Leaving Charku’ alone was not the most comforting idea, but we still had a job to do; I ran inside the burning building searching frantically for Eliam’s journal. Bo’dok followed shortly after and opened a set of doors to the next room, there stood a familiar sight, the woman from the jungle who so conveniently disappeared stood in the middle of the room with a handful of skeletons and zombies. Aarson, Bo’dok and Shen moved up to the undead creatures and began to fight past; I tried to control the creatures but the woman was stronger than I was. Shortly after the battle began the woman animated a large taxidermy’d squid, it began to flail about and strike at our group. We quickly went through the zombies and charged after the woman; after dodging past the squid, she fell. I couldn’t control the squid, but the skeletons looked to me after the woman fell. Bo’dok moved into the next room, which turned out to be a library; there were three more Emerald Claw members one of them slipped a book into her robes. Bo’dok, Shen and Aaron kept them from leaving the room as we began to choke on the smoke. The creatures tried to flee the building which gave Bo’dok, Shen and Aarson the chances they needed to finish the group off. Aarson grabbed the cloaked woman’s body and dashed past the squid, I sent the skeletons up so they could safely pass, Shen was choking on the smoke but managed to grab the woman from the jungle to pull her out of the building. Our group rushed out of the building and I grabbed the rope that was died around Charku’, he was slowly waking up and trying to struggle out of the ropes. I held my morning star above his head and asked him if he wanted to die now or if he wanted to cooperate. He groaned and asked if Durra was okay, I gave no response and I drug him down the steps of the house; as we reached the safety of the yard, the side of the house that hung over the sea broke and fell. I pulled out the sending stone and told Sig to pick us up at the dock immediately.

Dravago Zol 28th
We made it back to Adderport, with just a bit of trouble. We ran into a group of Emerald Claw fanatics who kept going on about a Dragon’s eye. They said we had it, though I’m pretty sure we have not picked up anything like that. Right outside of Adderport Bo’dok had a burning sensation on his stomach, when he moved his armor an aberrant dragon mark had appeared on his skin. Soon after Shen’s left chest got the same abrupt mark, and Aarson developed an aberrant mark as well on his right upper shoulder. My arm started to burn as well, I already had an aberrant dragon mark, and it never burned like this before. I tore off the cloth I had covering it and I noticed it twist and turn. Aberrant dragon marks are not greatly accepted throughout the world so I urged the others to keep their marks quiet until we could figure out how all of us seemed to be affected by this. I kept my mark uncovered as we went into town; mine’s been around for a while so I’m use to the looks. We met with Sur’kil and went over the details of our trip, and informed him of our marks, though I am not very comfortable enough with him to tell him our life stories.

Dravago Zol 23rd
We are on our way back to Adderport after three eventful days. Our search of the left side of the temple came up empty-but we knew there was a small black dragon hiding somewhere inside the temple. We approached the right hallway of the temple and slowly made our way down it. As Bo’dok cleared the corner into a large room two lizards waited and got the jump on us. I cannot imagine how they heard us. Oh wait, we have heavy armor that is how! Bo’dok and Shen were right in front but Aarson and I could not assist them. I willed my aberrant dragon mark and pulled Shen back to my position and I moved to his. I only had to move a little to use my crossbow effectively and he could walk right back to where he was. My flawless plan…was not so flawless-from behind me, another lizard appeared as he struck me to the ground. The world around me went dark for an instant and then I was awake at my brother’s feet. That was a surprise; he could not heal the last time we fought together. I was still hurt enough that I could not risk getting up to help, so I laid there and healed myself with a wand. Soon Bo’dok, Aarson and Shen finished off the first two lizards; the one that knocked me out ran off through a secret door.
We finished searching for him, but he had escaped somehow. There were wells all over this temple, so Shen decided he was going to check one out. I fastened my rope to him and he went to jump down the well, with me holding the rope! Bad idea, so I handed it to Bo’dok and Shen went down the well. He landed on a little platform about twenty feet down, he was looking for a release to open the floor when the floor gave away and Shen fell down; with Bo’dok in tow. Aarson looked at me with a look of shock as we ran to the well, at the bottom in a pile of rope and metal were Shen and Bo’dok; thankfully more surprised than anything. Aarson and I were deciding what to do when the floor shut and we lost sight of Shen and Bo’dok. This threw me into more of a panic than anything else, Aarson pulled out a rope and we jumped down to the floor in the well. We looked everywhere to see how this system worked, nothing we did spell or otherwise worked. My frustrations grew as we could hear some sort of confrontation below us, there was nothing I could do. The sounds began to fade and then suddenly the floor opened below us, and left Aarson and I hanging by our rope. Apparently, some mechanism opened the door for a short period.
After looking through the rooms and making sure the large skeletal dragon in the corner was just a skeleton, we searched through the large pile of treasure underneath. Shen found a secret door that lead down a hallway, which ended at a gate. Just as we reached the gate the wall, where the secret door was closed and began to move towards us. I rushed to meet the wall and see if any magic was operating it, while Shen and Bo’dok smashed at a broken piece of wall. Nothing magical was making this wall move, so I went back to Shen to see how the wall was going. With a small chunk of time left, Shen burst through the wall and we slipped through without being crushed to death.
We moved down a long flight of stairs at the bottom it was hotter than it was in the jungle. Entering the room at the bottom of the stairs we saw why, in the room were three platforms with twenty-foot gaps between them, hanging over a lake of magma. I stepped out onto the platform, which seemed steady; Shen went to the middle and grabbed a chain that hung over the platform and it began to move. Bo’dok stood at the edge as we moved slowly across the room; half ways to the next platform two canoloths appeared out of nowhere and were waiting our arrival at the middle platform. Knowing I would be wasted in this type of situation, I used my dragon mark to move Bo’dok to my position. Shen and Bo’dok reached the middle platform and began fighting with the beasts. Midway it was clear that Shen could not move; fearing that he would fall into the magma that was below I moved him to my position and took his on the middle platform. I pulled the chain to move back towards my brother when the canoloth that Bo’dok was fighting grabbed me and pulled me off the platform. Bo’dok kept smashing the beast and finished him off with little harm to myself. Shen was having more problems, he was hurt badly, but he was just out of my spells reach. Bo’dok reminded him of a skill he had used before and Shen gracefully slipped past the canoloth; I threw a bolt of clear blue energy that gave him the extra boost he needed to finish the creature. I patched Shen and Bo’dok up and we took the next platform to the other side of the room.
Our troubles were not over yet as we moved down more stairs, we could hear an odd sound of metal on metal. We stood in awe at a room filled with all types of blades twirling and smashing; it was really quite amazing. After studying the room, we found a pattern to the madness and began slowly making our way through the room. Half way through two small spiky metal balls came out of the walls and started to dance around the blades and smash into us. Amazingly, Shen and Bo’dok dispatched them quickly and we made it to the door on the other side, a locked door of course. Bo’doks solution was to smash the door open, Shen and I went back to see if we could find keys. Returning with a silver and gold key, we seemed to be missing one more. Bo’dok continued to smash the door and I moved to a secure spot within the blades to get away from any traps he may set off. My hair flew around my face in a fury that matched my mood, until Shen informed me that the door was open.
We moved into a natural cavern that had glowing dragon marks floating around the room. There was a sarcophagus in the corner and an alter directly in front of us. Shen and Bo’dok moved to the alter and picked up a scepter and a necklace, they hardly had the items in their hands and the lid of the sarcophagus flew off. A mummy with a black dragon skull burst out of the sarcophagus; I turned towards the creature and holding my symbol of the Six out in front of me and shouted with the fury of the Six. The mummy fell back in fear and Bo’Dok moved up to assault the beast. Shen and Aarson were shook for a bit but charged head on into the fight; thankfully, the beast cowered in the corner for most of the fight. After slaying the beast, we took the items and left the temple making our way back to Adderport.

Dravgo Far 19th
We continue to pick our way slowly through this jungle, Bo’dok and myself are not very fast; which is only a problem for Shen and Aarson. Yesterday was our first confrontation; arrows came flying out of the trees at Bo’dok, who blocked quickly with his tower shield. Moving off the path we gained cover from the trees. The arrows kept coming with no sign of the shooters, Bo’dok and Shen spotted one, a lizard folk and I pointed out another to Aarson. After a quick blow from Bo’dok’s axe, Shen darted over with a burst of speed to finish him off. Aarson went blindly towards the one I had pointed out. Shen and Bo’dok quickly went after the third lizard and finished him off. Aarson landed a few solid blows on the second lizard, but it pulled back, used a whistle, and ran off into the jungle. Since someone probably knew we were here, we decided to keep moving.
Finally we reached the temple of Kha’shazul, however so were three large black lizards that started their assault as we reached the temple steps. Shen ran left and threw his spear at one, Bo’dok went after another, his axe smashing down on the creature, and Aarson and I took the third. Just as Bo’dok finished one off three more lizards came lumber out of the jungle. They moved in around Aarson and I as we killed our original target. Bo’dok moved in and attacked one of the lizard folk. I saw Shen finish off the lizard he was fighting. Seeing our position, my completely over protective brother, rushed foolishly in front two of the lizards and came to a stop in front of me. I healed him from his poor decision and the three finished the remaining lizards without too many complications. We moved into the temple, after a bit of searching and a few more uneventful battles we decided to rest.

Dravgo Wir 17th
We passed a group of non-hostile lizard folk today. Thankfully I speak Draconic; Bo’dok kept trying to walk in front of me, once the group agreed to let us pass-actions like those could cost lives. Being stubborn as I am, he stayed behind me until we passed.

Dravgo Zol 16th
The Six help me it is so hot here; this oppressive heat really bogs down the challenges that we will meet ahead. It could at least rain, then it would be more homely, oh well-get in, get
the stuff, get out.

Dravgo Sar 13th
Five days on a ship! We passed close to the Mourn Lands, you could see the dead mist hanging over the hills. None of us had ever been that close, such mystery must be hiding under that mist. And riches too, someday I should go there, Aarson would come, even Shen, perhaps Bo’dok as well. I spent most of my time tied to objects on the ship, I do not swim well. The others roamed about the ship and we met with Sur’kil. Apparently the relics we seek are from the age of demons, guarded by lizard folk and dragons. The temple is deep in the jungle of Q’barra; Sur’kil has supplied us with two sending stones to contact him in case of trouble and to inform him of our return. Now that we made it to port we will leave tomorrow morning at dawn.

Dravago Sul 7th
We are leaving Sharn, our newly assembled group has been hired by a weathered looking man named Sur’kil for four weeks. We are looking for a relic hidden in the jungles of Q’barra, paid travel there; pick of the treasure and a bit of extra gold-not at all a bad deal; unless you are a Dwarf. Half up front always sets the mood for a good hire.
We left this afternoon on a ship titled the Swiftwind, captained by a Half Elf, Sig, who has the mark of Storm. We are going to Adderport in Q’barra and then to the Temple of Kha’shazul, hopefully the relics this man seeks is there.

A blog for your campaign

While the wiki is great for organizing your campaign world, it’s not the best way to chronicle your adventures. For that purpose, you need a blog!

The Adventure Log will allow you to chronologically order the happenings of your campaign. It serves as the record of what has passed. After each gaming session, come to the Adventure Log and write up what happened. In time, it will grow into a great story!

Best of all, each Adventure Log post is also a wiki page! You can link back and forth with your wiki, characters, and so forth as you wish.

One final tip: Before you jump in and try to write up the entire history for your campaign, take a deep breath. Rather than spending days writing and getting exhausted, I would suggest writing a quick “Story So Far” with only a summary. Then, get back to gaming! Grow your Adventure Log over time, rather than all at once.